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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



A STUDY OF MAN 



THE WAY TO HEALTH 



9* arvi, 

J. D. BUCK, M. D. 



Selfishness is the father of vice ; 
Altruism, the mother of virtue. 



New Edition Issued 1903 and Enlarged 



CINCINNATI 

ROBERT CLARKE & CO. 

1904 



3RARY OF 

CONGRESS, 

One Co-v fttoeivEB 

1903 

f>»»YSI8KT SNTRY 



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COPYRIGHT, 1889, 
By J. D. BUCK. 



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DEDICATION. 

To the pure Light of Love 
That beams on the altar of my home 
And to the inspiring Soul of Unselfishness 
That radiates from the life of my sister 
These pages are affectionately inscribed. 



FOREWORD. 

The following volume was designed to lead up to a systematic^ 
and, therefore, a scientific and philosophical study of man. With 
Religion on the one side, and materialistic Science on the other, 
with the average individual no provision was made in current 
beliefs or the annals of science for a rational conception of the 
human soul. 

Between faith without reason, and reason, under the garb of 
science, without faith, agnosticism was being insidiously trans- 
formed into a soulless and Godless materialism. Problems the 
most vital to man were labeled "Unknowable." So-called science 
virtually declared the quest for the soul altogether visionary and 
did its best and its utmost to discourage the search altogether. 

The Study of Man was designed to show the Modulus that 
underlies the whole nature of man. Emphasizing the facts of com- 
mon experiences, and avoiding all theorizing as far as possible, 
the facts cognizant to all were allowed to tell their own story, 
and thus reveal the obvious and necessary inferences. Conscious- 
ness was thus shown as compassing equally, a natural and a 
spiritual world, in the common experience of man. No effort 
whatever was made to construct a theory of the soul, but it 
was designed to lessen the force of agnosticism by suggestions 
of a possible Gnosis, and to counteract the blighting curse of 
materialism by showing man to be essentially a spiritual being. 
Moreover, the inference is very general, and everywhere upheld 
by the language and theories of modern science, that the higher 
evolution of man consists in and is determined by intellectual 
development, and the ethical or moral element is included by cour- 
tesy. Then by making all intellectual processes adhere strictly as a 
function of the physical brain, this Physio- psychology, synony- 
mous with all mental processes, again closed the cycle of material- 
ism. It was attempted, without direct reference to these ma- 
terialistic theories, to so present the facts of common experience, 
as to make these materialistic theories forever more impossible, 

(v) 



vi Foreword to the Third Edition. 

by showing the modulus of man to involve a two-fold life in the 
form of a universal and exact equation. 

Thus the outer world of things, and the inner world of ideas: 
the objective and the subjective, the Natural and the Spiritual, 
were shown to adhere equally in all human experience, and to be 
the modulus of Nature, everywhere manifest in the life of man. 

The working hypothesis of modern physical science undertakes 
to reduce all problems in the life of man, as in physical nature 
at large, to terms of mass and motion. 

In the Kinetics of the physical brain and nervous mechanism 
Science finds its psychical theorem. The phenomena of thought 
and the relation between structure and function may be observed, 
studied, classified, ad infinitum, and yet, if the fact of conscious- 
ness is belittled or ignored, man will never grasp the 'real problem 
of the soul, or arrive at any adequate theorem of the higher 
evolution. 

The human is essentially the humane. All intellectual processes 
that overlook or ignore simple kindness or compassion are 
inhuman, to say the least, and can alone never determine the 
higher evolution of man. Hence the principle of altruism is shown 
to underlie all problems in the life of man. This adheres from the 
modulus of Nature, and the overshadowing of the Divine from 
which the life of man proceeds. 

During the past decade these altruistic principles and concepts 
have gained immeasurably in the attention and conscience of our 
fellowmen. Scientific Materialism so-called has proportionately 
loosened its hold. Wireless telegraphy has suggested new concepts 
in nature's finer forces. The trend of thought and the lines of 
interest have, in many directions, moved to higher planes. The 
two planes of consciousness in man everywhere recognized in this 
book and continually appealed to as basic in all phenomena of 
conscious life, are now quite generally recognized; whereas, when 
this book first appeared they Avere more often scouted or ridiculed 
by so-called scientists. Prof. William James of Harvard declares 
"the Subconscious Self to be, nowadays, a well-accredited physoho- 
logical entity." It will presently be recognized that it is the supra- 
conscious Self, rather than the sub-conscious, that must be 
recognized in all the higher groups of psychic phenomena. In this 
book the term Higher Self was used to designate the ego as the 
adjunct in these higher phenomena. Hence we have the Conscious 



Foreword to the Third Edition. vii 

Self, the Sub-conscious Self, the Supra-conscious Self, three 
aspects of the Ego representing three well-marked planes of con- 
sciousness. 

In the chapter on Planes of Life it was undertaken to illustrate 
these planes of consciousness without formulating the philosophy 
upon which the conception rests, except by the broadest generaliza- 
tions. 

It is thus easy to show that great progress is being made, and 
along what lines. 

The text of the book remains as first written. The author 
has no alterations to make. 

It may here be said in passing, however, that the terms "dead 
matter" and "living matter" were used at the time in the con- 
ventional sense of modern physiology, while in the chapters on 
Life and Living Forms, Life is regarded as potential or latent 
in all matter. As a quality Life is an Ultimate, like Conscious- 
ness, Law, etc. 

In the process of nutrition and assimilation, so-called "dead 
matter" is constantly being converted into living tissue, and this 
is inconceivable if a radical difference between them really exists. 
It is evidently the same substance under different conditions, what 
we call Life being latent in the one case and manifest or active in 
the other. 

With the Higher Criticism in religious matters, and the recog- 
nition of the Finer Forces in scientific research, there is a very 
evident up-lift toward spiritual discernment. Materialism in 
science and creed and dogma in religion are thus giving place to 
the New Psychology. This Science of the Soul recognizes the innate 
spiritual intuitions as the true illuminator of man, which all true 
science confirms, and all true religion fosters and assists. 

The Study of Man was originally designed to lead up to, and 
facilitate just this spiritual enlightenment by those general con- 
siderations that make it both logical and unavoidable. 

All our conclusions regarding the nature, the mission, and the 
destiny of man, depend on the point from which we view him. If 
we regard him as simply an "improved animal" we shall strive in 
vain to account far or to apprehend his higher faculties and tran- 
scendent powers. 

But if we regard man as essentially a spiritual being from 
our higher vamtlage-ground his lower mature and all the intervening 



viii Foreword to the Third Edition. 

planes of consciousness may be clearly apprehended. Hence the 
Natural and the Spiritual are herein shown to be basic in our 
theorem of Life, the process of evolution and involution to be an 
underlying vital equation, and the Perfect Man alike the Ideal of 
Universal Nature and Divine Intelligence. 



PKEFACE. 

"Know then thyself, presume not God. to scan, 
The proper study of mankind is man. 
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, 
A being darkly wise, and rudely great; 
With too much knowledge for the skeptic side, 
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, 
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; 
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; 
In doubt his mind or body to prefer; 
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err; 
Alike in ignorance, his reasoning such, 
Whether he thinks too little or too much; 
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; 
Still by himself abused or disabused; 
Created half to rise, or half to fall; 
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; 
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd, 
The glory, jest and riddle of the world!" 

Such was man as viewed through the eyes of Alexander 
Pope. But few of the present generation read Pope, and yet 
mankind is much the same now as two hundred years ago, 
and for the average individual these famous lines are as true 
now as when they were first penned. 

There have been those in all ages who have devoted their 
lives to the study of man, and these have at least apprehended 
the nature of the problems involved in its origin, nature, and 
destiny, though they may have been unable to solve them. 
Most wonderful progress has indeed been made in material 

(ix) 



x Preface. 

things during the past two hundred years, and more especially 
during the last half century; yet man is still 

"The glory, jest and riddle of the world!" 

There never was a time in the history of letters when so 
great facilities and so few barriers were presented to the study 
of man as now. Investigation is to-day practicably free. 
There are no barriers to any study that does not interfere 
directly with the life, liberty and happiness of another. There 
may, indeed, be found a lurking remnant of the old persecu- 
tion, but fortunately it is seldom marshaled in the name of 
religion. It rather issues from the camp of the nihilist as a 
rather mild form of ridicule of him who ventures to question 
the realm scientifically dubbed the unknowable. Yet even here 
the progress of science in the realm of nature's finer forces 
has been so great that the majority of really earnest and 
intelligent persons declare that they are not prepared to say 
what is possible and what not, and that they would hardly be 
surprised at anything. Among the really devout and earnest 
souls it is usually enough that one earnestly seeks the truth 
for the benefit of man in order to enlist attention and courteous 
examination. The motto of these is anything that is right and 
true for the benefit of humanity. It is true that there does not 
appear on the surface of things nowadays so great solicitude 
for the glory of God, for the reason that it has been discerned 
in these later times that the glory of God depends on the 
elevation of man; for only as man's thoughts are purified and 
his life elevated can he seek and adore the source of all life, 
the bestower of &Vl good, and the fountain of all truth. 

Opportunities for observing human nature in all its modes 
of life, in every degree of development, and in every clime, 
were never so great as they are to-day. One may now cir- 
cumnavigate the globe with less expenditure of time aoid 



Preface. xi 

money than would have been required a few years ago to 
cross a continent or a principality 

Railroads and telegraphs have consolidated humanity. If a 
flood occurs in the Celestial Empire, a cyclone in Ceylon, or 
if two emperors meet en neutral ground to discuss the fate of 
empires, and to consider the propriety of allowing a few thou- 
sands of their subjects to slaughter each other, we read of all 
these things in the daily press over our coffee the next morn- 
ing. We are almost able to feel the pulse and note the daily 
temperature of a sick and bedoctored emperor on the other 
side of the globe, and we are apprised of his demise before 
the services of the wrangling physicians have given place to 
those of the Royal undertaker. 

From the wonderful advancement in the art of printing have 
come the .multiplication of books, the reproduction of ancient 
manuscripts, the progress of science and the arts and the gen- 
eral diffusion of learning, thus placing these treasures within 
reach of the poorest, giving them facilities once the birthright 
of kings only. Priceless volumes are stored in public libraries, 
accessible to any who will use and not destroy; while to the 
halls of learning the price of admission is learning itself, 
rather than the favor of princes. 

We have seen doctrines, as evolution, which were at first 
supposed to be subversive of all truth and righteousness, make 
such rapid progress that a single decade was sufficient to 
make them popular wherever comprehended, and where an- 
other decade found them involved in pulpit utterance as the 
criterion of intelligence. Religion is no longer afraid of her 
altars in the presence of anything that can be shown to be 
true and beneficent, while the dark shadow that once glowered 
over her altars and quenched her sacred fires has fled at the 
approach of the illuminating angel of humanity. Just in 
proportion as superstition recedes, does peace and good will to 



xii Preface. 

man advance. No odium theologicum attaches to any depart- 
ment of learning, and no utterance made by a thoughtful 
mind and set forth with candor and decency excites either 
surprise or alarm. A stronger weapon than even persecution 
is now recognized, namely, intelligent criticism and disproof. 

Modern science has pushed its investigations into every de- 
partment of nature. It has dredged the deepest seas, scaled 
the highest mountains, analyzed the sunbeam, and resolved 
the distant nebula. Science has rendered the hardest metals 
incandescent, and seems only to be gathering breath, and 
strength before it dissolves the elements. Science has thus 
pushed experiment and analysis, instituted comparisons, weighed, 
measured, tabulated, systematized and recorded facts. 

In all this investigation no external kingdom of nature has 
been overlooked, nor escaped the argus-eyed explorer. The 
habits, modes of origin and cycles of life of plants and animals 
have been observed over a large part of the habitable globe, 
while organisms whose theater of life is invisible to the naked 
eye have been studied under the microscope until they are as 
familiar to the biologist as household words; and while the 
brave Stanley, worthy successor to Livingston, is lost in the 
jungles of Africa the ambitious Arctic explorer dreams of an 
open polar sea. 

Comparative anatomy and comparative physiology have 
greatly enlarged our knowledge of the theater, the mechan- 
ism and the phenomena of life, while these, together with the 
study of the zoophite and the amoeba, have added greatly to 
our knowledge of the structure and functions of life in man. 

The study of sociology has been undertaken with zeal and 
intelligence, thus furnishing future students valuable material, 
if not final results. 

The last stronghold of superstition and ignorance is the psy- 
chical nature of man. While the problems in psychology are 
the last and the most difficult to be investigated, they give at 



Preface. xiii 

the same time the most curious interest to the ignorant, and 
excite in the intelligent the greatest diversity of opinion. 
It might therefore be said of psychology, and might be ap- 
plied to most of toe discussions thereon, as it was once said of 
philosophy: they are treatises on a subject that no one knows 
any thing about, conducted in a language that no one under- 
stands. The reason for this condition of things may, perhaps, 
be shown in the following pages. There is certainly no lack of 
facts, no dearth of materials, upon which to build the foun- 
dations, at least, of a science of psychology. The author of 
this work trusts that it may appear in the sequel that only better 
methods are needed to bring about the desired result. All such 
investigations may indeed proceed from a physical basis, though 
they all transcend physics. They may also be conducted sci- 
entifically, but must also be supplemented by synthetic proc- 
esses to be derived only from a sound and far-reaching philos- 
ophy. All higher knowledge is a consensus of all experience; 
for man, therefore, in any true sense to know his higher na- 
ture he must have reached that plane first by experience. 
The experience of man has reached, at least in many oases, 
the threshold of the higher knowledge. Recorded and oft- 
verified observations and experiments are not wanting; while 
to rare psychological phenomena may also be added almost 
universal individual experience — incidents which seem to tran- 
scend the known laws of physics, and which have rot been 
properly assigned and apprehended for lack of a knowledge of 
any law governing them. Science has all along attempted to 
convert subjective experience into terms of phenomenal exist- 
ence, and it could not be otherwise than that such experience 
thus dragged out of place should appear distorted and fantas- 
tic, and should refuse to yield definite results. Moreover, 
that which is at best a method of procedure has been mis- 
taken for a result, and the dictum of science, prejudging events 
and preventing equitable measure of facts, bids fair to accom- 



xiv Preface. 

plish for science what superstition has done for religion, namely* 
to place authority over truth. 

With this condition of things thus briefly outlined what 
more important and interesting field for investigation presents 
itself to the earnest student than the entire nature of man? 
The great social problems that vex mankind await these inves- 
tigations. The principles of capital and labor, the social evil, 
the enfranchisement of woman, and the great principles of al- 
truism and egotism that underlie all others, clamor for solu- 
tion, and these can never be fully determined except on a 
strict basis of law that takes cognizance of every fact in phys- 
iology and every principle of a true psychology; and to arrive 
at these man requires more real knowledge of himself. The 
author of these pages hopes to be able to show that a better 
method in the use of the materials already on hand will lead 
up to just this knowledge, and at least will outline those prin- 
ciples that underlie the entire nature of man. 

It is often asserted that the study of medicine leads to athe- 
ism, and that a very large number of physicians are therefore 
atheists. The study of medicine is in its broadest sense the 
study of man in all his relations and manifestations. It might 
easily be shown that the proportion of atheists and material- 
ists among physicians is by no means greater than among any 
other class of persons of equal culture and education. If, 
however, it be really true that the study of man necessarily 
leads to atheism, then it follows that ignorance of one's own 
nature is but another name for theism, and that only the ig- 
norant can believe in God. If there be danger in the direc- 
tion indicated, it is the little learning that is the dangerous 
thing. If the study of man extends only to surface problems, 
as is too often the case, and is concerned only with sufficient 
learning to enable one to write a prescription and collect a fee, 
then the result here as elsewhere may be atheism, as the pur- 
suit is measured by self-interest. Strictly speaking, the study 



Preface. xv 

of man has no more to do with the question of theism proper 
than has the study of nature. Theism is an element in pan- 
theism; for, as shown in the following pages, man's idea of God 
is drawn equally from nature, and from human nature. 

The object of this work is to show that there is a modulus 
in nature and a divinity in man, and that these two are in 
essence one, and that therefore God and nature are not at 
cross-purposes. 

In pursuing the subject from its physical side only the 
barest outlines of physics and physiology have been attempted, 
sufficient, however, to show the method suggested and the line 
of investigation to be pursued. 

The writer of this book has been for many years deeply in- 
terested in all that relates to human nature, or that promises in 
any way to mitigate human suffering and increase the sum of 
human happiness. He has no peculiar views that he desires 
to impress on any one, but he believes that a somewhat differ- 
ent use of facts and materials already in our possession will 
give a deeper insight into human nature, and will secure 
far more satisfactory results than are usually attained. He 
believes that while traversing old ground, he has herein sug- 
gested the exploration of it in a new way, though by no 
means original with himself; and he is not aware of any 
previous attempt at the reconciliation of Science and Religion 
on the basis herein proposed. This reconciliation lies in the 
logical application of one universal law that is coincident with 
all nature and commensurate with all life. This law does not 
subvert, but supplements the theory of evolution, by involu- 
tion, and recognizes all processes of creation, or of being, as 
equations, the modulus of which is the underlying cosmic 
duality . 

This treatise may be epitomized as follows: 

The cosmic form in which all things are created, and in 
which all things exist, is a universal duality. 



xvi Preface. 

Involution and evolution express the twofold process of the 
one law of development, corresponding to the two planes of 
being, the subjective and the objective. Consciousness is the 
central fact of being. 

Experience is the only method of knowing; therefore to know 
is to become. 

The Modulus of Nature, that is, the pattern after which 
she everywhere builds, and the method to which she contin- 
ually conforms, is an Ideal or Archetypal Man. 

The Perfect Man is the anthropomorphic God, a living, 
present Christ in every human soul. 

Two natures meet on the human plane and are focalized in 
Man. These are the animal ego, and the higher self; the 
one, an inheritance from lower life, the other an overshadow- 
ing from the next higher plane. 

The animal principle is selfishness; the divine principle is 
altruism . 

However defective in other respects human nature may be, 
all human endeavor must finally be measured by the principle 
of altruism, and must stand or fall by the measure in which 
it inspires and uplifts humanity. 

Literary criticism, however justifiable and however valu- 
able, is net the highest tribunal; were it so, the following 
pag6s would never have seen the light. The highest tribunal 
is the criterion of truth, and the test of truth is by its use 
and beneficence. 

Superstition is not religion; speculation is not philosophy; 
materialism is not science; but true religion, true philosophy, 
and true science are ever the handmaids of truth. 

The study of man by himself should, first of all, point out 
the possibility of improvement, and so far as possible suggest 
the methods and indicate the means by which improvement 
may be realized. This is the motive which has brought out 



Preface. xvii 

this -work, and no one can be more sensible of its many defects 
than its author. If. however, this book should encourage an 
abler pen to more competent endeavor in the same direction, 
the most sanguine expectations of its author will hava been 
realized. 

The writer's most sincere acknowledgments are due to his 
friend and co-laborer, Dr. J. M. Crawford, whose ripe scholar- 
ship, now so widely recognized in his translation of the Kale- 
vala, has greatly improved these pages. The conscientious- 
ness with which he has sought to preserve the exact meaning 
of the author, while critically reviewing these pages, is as 
creditable as his scholarship is commendable. 

With this introduction, this book is given to the reader in 
the hope that it may encourage and uplift, though it be but a 
little, that great orphan. Humanity. 

J. D. B. 
Cincinnati, 0., November 20, 1888. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



FOREWORD, V 

The synthetic whole: neither modern science nor cur- 
rent religions offeir any rational theory of the soul: 
the "unknowable" of science: faith without reason, 
and reason without faith: consciousness includes both 
the natural and the spiritual world : the Gnosis : evolu- 
tion means far more than merely intellectual develop- 
ment: the outer world of things and the inner world 
of ideas : the kinetics of the physical brain : the princi- 
ple of altruism is basic: the decay of scientific ma- 
terialism: the trend of thought has moved to higher 
planes: the subconscious self: dead matter ineally a 
misnomer, viii 

Pbeface, ix 

General introduction , thesis : the cosmic form a universal 
duality : involution and evolution the two- fold process of 
one law of development, corresponding to the two planes 
of being, the objective and the subjective : consciousness 
the central fact of being: experience the only method 
of knowing: the modulus of nature: the anthropomor- 
phic God, xvii 

CHAPTER I. 
The Criterion of Truth, 29 

Personality: self-interest: the misuse of words : traditional 
authority : individual bias, hereditary and educational : 
the questioning of authority : jurisdiction of [religion and 
science: religious truth: scientific truth: philosophic 
truth : the unity and saeredness of all truth : the mean- 
ing of orthodoxy: the opinions of men and the truth 
of revelation: the dicta, of science: truth in one depart- 
ment as sacred as in any other : the responsibility of the 

(xix) 



xx Table of Contents. 

The Criterion of Truth— Continued. 

investigator: Christian science: the testimony of 
science: absolute truth: the evidence of the senses: 
consciousness ignored : the unity of nature and of man : 
outline of the problem involved: the relation of con- 
sciousness to the objective and subjective worlds, and 
to expedience: man's intellectual kingdom: conditions 
of man's progress, 41 

CHAPTER II. 

Matteb and Force, 42 

Primordial atoms: hypothetical atoms: the vortices of 
Descartes: the monads of Leibnitz: the test of theory: 
the discovery of law: the eternity of matter and force 
and the persistence of motion: correlation and con- 
servation of force: Mr. Keely's vibratory enea-gy: Mr. 
Crook's radiant matter: laws against hypnotism: the 
force of scientific dicta: Plato and the Hindoo philos- 
ophies : experiments on sound waves : consonant rhythm : 
the form of crystals: every atom of matter set to 
music: polarization: magnetism the substratum of both 
matter and farce: compounds: the idea of space: 
unparticled matter and the universal ether: the evi- 
dence of analogy: the natural and the spiritual, 
so-called, 53 

CHAPTER III. 

The Phenomenal World, 54 

Man's relations to physics: universal motion implies 
ceaseless change: nothing is what it seems: the rela- 
tion of experience to consciousness: creation divides 
into halves: matter external body, spirit internal 
essence: the loves of the atoms: positive and negative 
poles: attraction and repulsion: the phenomenal chiair- 
acter of the senses : ideas of space and time : Sensorium 
Dei: the consciousness of nature: invisible worlds the 
counterpart of the visible: involution and evolution: 
the human equation : every subject may be viewed from 
two sides: self -preservation the alpha and omega of ego- 
tism: altruism the highest law of nature: the key: the 
phenomenal and the noumenal made one, 59 



Table of Contents. xxi 

CHAPTER IV. 

Philosophy and Science, 60 

The basis of all knowledge: learning and knowing: the 
relation of thought to consciousness: thought builds 
lamd perfects the brain: precipitated results of thought 
in consciousness: analysis and synthesis: experience, 
reason, intuition, and consciousness: the experience of 
others, the dicta of science, and the dogmas of re- 
ligion: universal methods: materialist, theorist, and ' 
philosopher: knowledge of self and knowledge of God, 64 

CHAPTER V. 

Life, 65 

The all-pervading life: concrete degrees and innumerable 
forms of life: knowledge of relations only: the trans- 
mission of life:: the cycle of life: spontaneous genera- 
ifcion: the germ theory: living matter and germs: 
Proteus: definition of an organism: comparison of pro- 
toplasm and organism: anioebee: nutrition the basic 
function of organisms : the cycle of life : effect of chlo- 
roform on living matter: irritability, sensibility, and 
consciousness: the unity of consciousness: the law of 
development: all lower nature climbs toward man; 
and man climbs toward divinity: natural selection and 
divine selection, 72 

CHAPTER VI. 

POLAEITY, 73 

Polarity characteristic of magnetism: its sign manual: 
the voltaic battery: magnetism elongates a bar of iron: 
the law of magnetic attraction: the theories of Des- 
cartes and Ampere: pure force separate from matter 
is unthinkable: the matrix of matter and the potency 
of force: special modes of motion as l^lated to mag- 
netism : diamagnetism : the positing of a center of life : 
concentric and eccentric waves of motion: the cosmic 
duality: sex: polarity as related to the human body: 
disturbed polarity: a corpse is a de- polarized mass: 
the phenomena of fear: no unity without duality: tie 
Fatherhood of God and the Motherhood of Nature, . . 80 



xxii Table of Contents. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Living Forms, 81 

The cosmic form a universal duality: male and female: 
Adam Cadman: involution and evolution: every form 
in nature is a duality: every perfect unity a harmo- 
nious duality: cosmos evolved out of chaos: ideal forms 
evolved from earthly shapes: spirit broods over matter: 
nature builds by law through pure mathematics: man 
is taught by suffering, and suffers that he may teach: 
creeds and fossils: man the epitome of all: the human 
embryo and the law of development: community of 
function in lower forms: differentiation in higher 
forms the principle of development: the cerebral lobes: 
(how they are to be regarded: evolution alone insuffi- 
cient: life tendency diffused throughout all matter: all 
lower forms of life are fragments of the human: the 
higher animals rudimentary human beings : inheritance 
and environment: the ideal form an overshadowing 
presence: selfishness and charity: egotism andiatltruism: 
tissue, cell, germ, ovum, fertilization: the process of 
reproduction: aggregation and segregation: the origin 
of form: fertilization a double process the positing 
of a center of life and the unfolding of a still interior 
center of consciousness, 94 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Planes of Life, 95 



Magnetism and life: the life principle pervades all mat- 
ter: differentiation and the ebb and flow of life: no fast 
lines between living and non-living matter: succes- 
sive planes of life from lowest to highest : vain efforts to 
discover the missing links in the chain of hiumlam forms: 
one plane of life .overlaps or overshadows another: 
every human personality is a composite body: man's 
relation to all surrounding life : the meaning of man's 
birthright: the predominance of one plane: physical, 
vital, sensuous, intellectual and spiritual personalities : 
the animal in rags and the animal in broadcloth : 
human tigers and hyenas: every individual possesses a 
definite amount of energy : gymnastic exercise and 



Table of Contents. xxiii 

Planes of Life — Continued. 

ideal development: the ideal is not reached without a 
struggle: the way to reach the highest pkune, 103 

CHAPTER IX. 
Human Life, 104 

Universality of the principles of development: difficult 
problems become easy of solution when once we have 
the key: from the physico-vital plane man appears as 
a highly -developed animal : viewed from the higher 
plane man appears as an undeveloped god: the lower 
nature cannot compnehenid the higher: the soul 
recognizes its kindred by sympathy, which means 
equality: how to view subjective experiences: the prin- 
ciple of equations : man's life now exists in two worlds, 
the natural and the spiritual: the work of modern bi- 
ology: hysterical epidemics of the middle ages: the in- 
fluence of sex: the case of Angelique Cottin: the 
chamber of birth often a chamber of torture : the sor- 
rows of childhood : unwelcome children : the uncertain 
tenure of life : the testimony of anatomy : the mani- 
festation of life phenomenal: evolution of the germ, 
and embryo: the elixir of life: the miracle of birth: 
the tragedy of inheritance : antenatal conditions : the 
nutritive changes in development from germ to 
earth : sensor-genesis, conscio-genesis, and the bio-genesis : 
the body of man a magnet: disturbed equilibrium: 
evil passions promote physical disease: the common 
multiple and the keynote of life: respiratory motion: 
every vital problem is an equation to be solved : age is 
youth reversed : the phenomena of function : the intimate 
relations of aill pants of the body: the phenomena of 
disease: consciousness an alembic of the life experience, 137 

CHAPTER X. 
The Nervous System, 138 

The development of nerve tissue: reserved areas: the ef- 
fect of repeated transmission in perfecting tissue and 
function: the physical basis of education: sensibility, 
sensation, and consciousness : the nerve arc : transmis- 
sion and registration of impressions : the physical basis 



xxiv Table of Contents. 

The Nervous System — Continued. 

of memory: centers of life and centers of conscious- 
ness: development of the sense of feeling: the world 
epitomized in the consciousness of man: the motive of 
action: good and evil as related to heredity: no 
builder like Dame Nature: the common multiple of 
nature: the reasoning faculty: knowledge and ex- 
perience: real knowledge and exact equation: self -con- 
quest: true magic: will and imagination: the place 
where two ways meet : the race for riches : the discovery 
of printing, and inductive philosophy: society at war 
with itself: capital and labor: the masses and the 
classes : communism : no permanent endowment of 
life in matter : rejuvenescence : the colloidal body and 
the psychic sense: clairvoyance and clair-audience : 
little Helen Keller and other psychics: zest in life: 
senile imbecility: the laws of habit: automatism: 
imagination and will: lust and love: the enfranchise- 
ment of woman, 166 

CHAPTER XI. 

Consciousness, 167 

Consciousness the prime factor in all individual experi- 
ence: subjective consciousness: complete self-conscious- 
ness impossible unless the low T er faculties are con- 
trolled by the higher : complete self-consciousness im- 
plies complete self control: sleep-walking, double con- 
consciousness : disturbed consciousness in the insane: 
delirium pax)duced by alcohol and opium: subjective 
prototypes: imagination and the ideal world: the su- 
preme folly of trying to deduce consciousness from 
matter: thimble-rigging psychology: dealing with the 
dead: mediumship and unconscious cerebration: the 
undiscovered country : the subjective world is the coun- 
terpart of the objective* consciousness remains even in 
senile imbecility long after memory has departed : the 
rounding up of experience in the two worlds: re-in- 
carnation and the doctrine of rewards and punish- 
ments: the wicked obey the law through fear, the wise 
keep the law through knowledge: he that is dead to 
the world is alive to God: education cannot repair the 



Table of Contents. xxv 

Consciousness — Continued. 

defects of birth: three states of consciousness known 
to everyone: spiritualism a psychological babel: the 
unholy trinity: the subjective plane of being must be 
subjectively discerned: man here and now is a 
materialized spirit if there is one anywhere, 183 

CHAPTER XII. 

Health and Disease, 184 

Magnetism and life: the creator and destroyer are one: 
magnetism the source of vitality : life is something be- 
yond all matter and force: life every-where diffused 
and one in kind : health as harmony : the relation and 
the dependence of structure and function: the relation 
of mind and body: prevailing methods of regarding 
health and disease are faulty: hysteria and hypochon- 
dria: all evil passions vitiate the bodily secretions 
and destroy health : mind is the immediate agent of 
the conscious ego: mind and body the servants of the 
real man : the order and the design of nature : the real 
meaning of health and harmony: the ego sits a king 
upon his throne : there is no tyrant like disease : crime 
but another name for disease: the rule of nature the 
greatest good to all: the laws of health are few and 
simple: inherited disease how cured: incurable cases: 
quacks and patent medicines: training-schools for 
nurses: mental states both the cause and the cure of 
disease: mental exaltation: imperfect man is no ma- 
gician: cheerfulness promotes health: ante-natal con- 
ditions: too little attention paid to the promotion and 
preservation of health: reforms in medicine: knowl- 
edge of man's nafcutre will banish the fear of death: 
all disease arises as disturbed function: acute and 
chronic diseases: all cures claimed by the doctor, all 
deaths charged to Providence : the result of a diffusion 
of a knowledge of man: mind-cure and other crazes: 
self-limiting and functional diseases often arise and 
are cured through the imagination : the outcome of the 
new craze: the ideal life: no royal road to health or 
to learning among the devices of man: nature's 



xxvi Table of Contents. 

Health and Disease — Continued. 

ideals : mental, moral and spiritual diseases : the per- 
perfection of man, 206 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Sanity and Insanity, 207 

Health of body and health of mind inseparably con- 
nected: whole nations as well as individuals revert to 
barbarism: the rage of the insane like that of wild 
beasts: increase of insanity: perversion of religious 
ideals : the ideal life, how attained : how body and mind 
are deformed: the influence of greed in promoting in- 
sanity : influence of false ideas on the masses : the 
identity of the ideals of health and religion: health 
must finally echo the harmony of nature, and sanity 
reflect the Divine Intelligence, 214 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Involution and Evolution of Man, 215 

The theatre of evolution: evolution alone insufficient: all 
processes in nature are equations of which evolution 
constitutes one member: duality and manifestation 
are synonymous : evolution promotes progress but does 
not account for ideal forms : involution supplements 
evolution: nature not soul-less nor God-le3S: the 
lower forms of life prophesy of man while man is a 
pirophecy of still higher forms: mine and thine: the 
selfish and the devout are often equally time-serving: 
the sequence of evolution and the sequence of inspira- 
tion arrive at the same result, namely, the perfect man, 226 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Higher Self, 227 

The Archetypal Man : the lost and the saved hereafter : 
modern life and ancient creeds: materialists, agnostics 
and enthusiasts : soul and spirit : the change called 
death: man's idea of God, of Nature, and of himself: 
immaculate conception : Christ the ideal man : the ac- 
complishment of the Divine Will: the selfish ego and 
the altruistic self: the mystery of self consciousness: 
double consciousness and double life: Margrave com- 



Table of Contents. xxvii 

The Higher Self — Continued 

pelled to speak the truth: the name of the Lord: self- 
consciousness and divine consciousness: the necessary 
conditions of a final philosophy : the era and the mis- 
sion of woman, 243 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Outposts of Science, 244 

The trend of thought, no one knows what may come next: 
the inductive method of Aristotle and Bacon: "the 
struggle for existence in the midst of a hostile en- 
vironment": renewed interest in the ether of space: 
the latest concept of the atom: Huxley repudiates 
materialism and renounces the "unknowable" : all as- 
cending evolution depends on mind, or consciousness: 
thought a mode of motion of the ether: matter is di- 
vine: space a "conditioned fullness": the later con- 
cept of the human soul, 250 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The New Psychology, 251 

The searchlight of science: psychology the latest field to 
be explored: the "higher criticism": the value of 
actual experience: empiricism of the "New Psychol- 
ogy": validity of facts in mind cure, etc.: laAv back 
of all these facts: the subconscious self and the supra- 
conscious self: both hypnosis and mediumship per- 
nicious and leading to degeneracy: what philosophy is 
and what it is not: ancient initiations: the secret doc- 
trine of H. P. Blavatsky: the problem of the "Search 
for the Soul" outlined: the "New Psychology" barely 
suggests the True Psychology, 260 



A STUDY OF MAN. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE CRITERION OF TRUTH. 



Personality is the most patent fact, and the most patent 
factor in the life of man; it tinges all he touches, and is the 
colored glass through which he views the world. The aver- 
age individual finds it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, 
to avoid an inherent tendency to convert all problems that 
present themselves in thought or life into terms of self- 
interest. So true is this principle, and so general its opera- 
tion, that it is exceedingly doubtful if anj> word in any lan- 
gauge conveys precisely the same meaning to any two per- 
sons; hence arise the misuse and misinterpretation of words 
,as the most prolific source of the disagreements of men. 
Eoth candor and charity compel the affirmation, that truth, 
in its larger sense, has suffered more from those who have 
misconceived and misinterpreted it, than from those who 
have knowingly or willfully opposed it. 

For the great majority of mankind the sole criterion of 
truth is traditional authority. Not only does this hold in 
matters of religion, codes of ethics, .and civil rights, but the 
whole tenor of individual life is determined by birth and 
geographical location. So also in matters of science, the 
authority of a great name is considered sufficient evidence 
for most persons who cultivate this department of knowl- 
edge ; while only a small minority undertake to examine the 

(29) 



30 A Study of Man. 

evidence on which a verdict in any case is supposed to have 
been based. It thus transpires that in most departments of 
human thought and human endeavor, a few individuals vir- 
tually do the thinking for the masses, and by appealing to 
the prejudices and self-interests of the many, they are en- 
abled to hold in check another minority over whom tradi- 
tional authority has but slight control; and even where the 
traditional dictum is taken with some grains of allowance, 
it is still considered as accepted unless openly repudiated. 
The great majority of people adhere to the religious forms 
into which they happened to be born, and upon the truth or 
falsity of which they have not been called upon to pronounce. 
By education these matters have been so thoroughly in- 
grained, and so much pains has been taken to render their 
hold binding and lasting, that it is really strange that any 
are able to throw off the yoke of authority. Either fortu- 
nately or unfortunately, the number of those who are able 
to break away from traditional authority has very largely 
increased within the past few decades, while within tradi- 
tional lines there is everywhere a questioning of authorities, 
a murmur of discontent presaging a warring of elements in 
the atmosphere of religious belief. 

So-called religious truth a century or two ago assumed 
jurisdiction even over secular matters, and finally relin- 
quished to science, though with great reluctance, the domain 
of physics and cosmogony, but only on condition of receiving 
absolute authority in its own realm. In this age religious 
truth and scientific truth are one, and that the highest and 
most important of human knowledge and human interest. 
In short, the element of progress of to-day, pushed on by 
the spirit of investigation, has entered every realm of knowl- 
edge, and subjected it to searching investigation. One of 
the inevitable results of all this questioning has been to sug- 
gest to the less thoughtful that nothing sacred in any realm 
remains. A little deeper thought will show that nothing in 
the way of real knowledge can be regarded as unclean or 



The Criterion of Truth. 31 

secular; it will show that all truth is given by inspiration, 
and that every true revelation of nature is a divine revela- 
tion to man. The reason for all these changes is not far to 
seek. The element of man's personality already mentioned, 
and which colors all he touches, lies at the root of these 
changes in individual belief and public sentiment. The bat- 
tle at this point has been a severe one; and the issues are 
not even yet decided, though they are in no way uncertain. 
In the ebb and flow of generation after generation, ancient 
records and sacred traditions have been so modified by spe- 
cial pleading, and so incorporated with human interest, that 
thousands of honest seekers after truth have been sacrificed 
under the cloak of authority because they dared to question 
the prevailing interpretation of these writings. It is a mat- 
ter of history that Michael Servetus, the earlier discoverer 
of the circulation of the blood, and one of the brightest minds 
of the age in which he lived, was burned to death in a slow 
fire of green wood, not because he denied or disbelieved the 
Bible, nor was in any way lacking in religious devotion, but 
because he dared to take issue with an ignorant, arrogant 
and vindictive priest in power, who intimidated his fellow- 
priests to help execute his revenge on a brother who had the 
better of him in an argument. If so-called Divine revelation 
were everywhere explicit, thus requiring no interpreters, and 
appealing directly to the conscience and understanding of 
man, it would be at once shorn of the element of human 
weakness and error. That which in any age is meant by the 
word orthodox has little reference to any book or any tradi- 
tion claimed to be divine, but to certain interpretations which 
men, weak and ignorant like ourselves, have from time to 
time put upon such records and traditions. It is high time 
that this fact should be clearly apprehended by every one 
who assumes the prerogative of thinking for himself, be- 
cause the knowledge of this fact will enable him to discrim- 
inate, and while questioning, as he has the right to do, the 
opinions of others, he will not be so ready to deny and re- 



2,2 A Study of Man. 

pudiate the sacred Word. No department of human endeavor 
reveals more of the weakness, the ignorance and the arro- 
gance of man, and his propensity to disagree and denounce, 
than his efforts to interpret the Scriptures. These records 
have reached us through the infirmities of speech, through 
the imperfections of human language, and further filtered 
through the weaknesses of human nature. Through these 
avenues only has any truth been transmitted from Deity to 
man. 

The parables and symbols of. the great religions contain 
more intrinsic truth, and more co-ordinate harmony than 
any verbal explanation of man has yet given to the world; 
and that which, more than all other causes combined, has 
hitherto prevented these grand truths from reaching the 
masses, is the conceit and arrogance with which ignorance 
has clung to her false interpretations, thus making it in 
former times well-niigh impossible, and in later times exceed- 
ingly difficult for the earnest seeker to find the real truth. 

Whenever man has attempted to explain the symbols 
which so largely constitute the sacred records of all reli- 
gions, without a full comprehension of the truth so symbol- 
ized, he has invariably made confusion more confounded. 
In these later days, when a larger and deeper apprehension 
of truth in every direction is dawning on the human race, 
and when freedom to pursue truth into every hiding-place, 
has brought the conviction that such a pursuit is not only 
man's highest prerogative, but also his binding duty, there 
is reason to believe that the truth underlying the outer form 
of the sacred text is slowly being apprehended. As Carlyle 
puts it: "All visible things are emblems. What thou seest 
is not there on its own account; strictly speaking, is not there 
at all. Matter exists only spiritually, and to represent some 
idea and body it forth." 

What we call the authority of science is largely deter- 
mined by the latest utterances of its most intelligent culti- 
vators. These utterances are generally guarded and usually 



The Criterion of Truth. 33 

just, setting forth the weak as well as the strong points of 
any hypothesis with equal care and conscientiousness. A 
large majority, however, of so-called scientists overlook 
these qualifications, and set forth the new theory as a fact, 
and then quote the masters in science as authority for their 
statements. Thus we find this burden of authority in one 
form or another pre-empting the fertile domains of human 
knowledge, so that it is often more difficult to get rid of the 
old squatter with his false title than it is to locate and record 
the newcomer with his fee-simple. 

It may thus be seen that the approaches to knowledge 
are seriously obstructed by zeal and self-interest; and that 
great fortitude is necessary to scale the foothills, before be- 
ginning to ascend the delectable mountains of truth. 

So far as the evidence of truth is based on human au- 
thority, that evidence is, therefore, always open to criticism ; 
and the truth itself, no matter where it may be found and 
by whatsoever marne it may be designated, is a legitimate 
subject for study and reinvestigation. Truth in one depart- 
ment of knowledge is as divine as in any other, when it is 
once seen that it is the truth alone that is sacred, and not the 
departments man has erected, nor the barriers he has laid 
across her pathway. Every sincere seeker for the simple 
truth, therefore, carries with him his patent to investigate 
for himself; this patent being a part of his direct inheritance 
from his Creator. He must not forget, however, that this 
unalienable right has coupled with it the duty of honest serv- 
ice, and that this service is to follow every sincere convic- 
tion. It is an old doctrine of the church that the repudia- 
tion of authority incurs grave responsibility. He who would 
shirk the responsibility is in no wise worthy of the freedom 
to think and act for himself, nor will he long enjoy such 
freedom, for the bondage of fear is always the handmaid 
of superstition, and the service of truth can alone make man 
free. 

Human knowledge naturally divides into departments, 



34 A Study of Man. 

as physics and metaphysics, science and art, while the de- 
partment designated as religion, howsoever mixed it may be 
with superstition, is not generally supposed to bear any rela- 
tion to other departments of knowledge. As religion is in 
the province of man, and as it involves a large part of his 
activities and largely determines his conduct, the sincere 
truth-seeker will be unable to avoid it if he should so de- 
sire, for if his purpose be sincere, his search warrant is 
absolute. 

The various departments of knowledge are often con- 
ceived as being at war with each other. The direct infer- 
ence is, that each being true, truth is therefore at war with 
itself. Such an inference, however, is absurd; for the most 
patent sign of falsehood is, always and everywhere, disa- 
greement. Falsehood invariably contradicts itself; truth, 
never. Therefore, if discrepancies arise between the differ- 
ent departments of knowledge, it places thereby suspicion on 
all ; but it must be remembered that this suspicion rests solely 
on the human side of the equation, and in no sense pertains 
to truth itself. The personal lens cff colored glass may make 
truth appear to one red and to another blue, like the two 
sides of the shield in the old fable ; but this can only be the 
pure white light of truth separated into its component colors 
by the personal lens. But if every individual is to use his 
own lens, as indeed he must, he should also remember that 
his is but one of many colors, and that the tints and shades 
due to combinations are practically limitless. If he will also 
bear in mind that truth itself is both tintless and taintless, 
he will never insist that his own is the one true color. 

It may easily be seen that many of the expressions in 
common use not only arise from misapprehension and inad- 
vertency, but that they are necessarily and directly the cause 
of error. The terms scientific truth, philosophic truth, reli- 
gious truth, would seem to imply that truth in one of these de- 
partments differs from truth in another. It will presently be 
shown that not only is truth itself hereby misapprehended, 



The Criterion of Truth. 35 

but that these very departments are by no means compre- 
hended. Our investigations, therefore, might begin with 
the inquiry, What is philosophy? What is science? What 
is religion ? before we inquire, What is truth ? 

One of the most popular errors of the day is the some- 
what notorious use of the term "Christian science," in a 
manner that reveals great ignorance of both terms thus em- 
ployed. The inference is that Christian science is something 
entirely different from any other science. If arrogance in 
statement, if contention and strife for priority in promulga- 
tion, and if exorbitant fees and concealment of so-called 
truth be essentially Christian, then the Sermon on the Mount 
must be un-Christian. Not only has enough of these costly 
secrets leaked out to show that not a single new secret is 
therein contained, but that far more and better can be had 
elsewhere for the asking. The only new thing is the fencing 
this old subject >in with a new name for purposes of exorbi- 
tant revenue, to be derived by imposing on the ignorant and 
credulous. Many of the principles contained are undeniably 
true, and many of its cultivators are people of high life and 
unblemished character. Like so many other cases, however, 
known to all history, they are better than their creed. Arro- 
gance, avarice, and strife, even when found under the sacred 
name of truth, lead inevitably to but one destiny: confusion 
and desolation. 

All scientific testimony is said by Huxley to depend on 
"valid evidence, and sound reasoning." While the rules of 
logic are now so well defined that among educated people 
there will be little disagreement as to what constitutes "sound 
reasoning," different scholars will differ necessarily as to 
what constitutes "valid evidence." Such, however, is one of 
the latest utterances of physical science, put forth by one of 
its foremost cultivators, a man as competent to judge of 
evidence in the domain he specially cultivates as any man 
living. It must be seen, if his definition of what constitutes 
scientific evidence is to be universally accepted, that instead 



36 A Study of Man. 

of laying the foundation for real evidence and becoming a 
criterion of truth, it can only stand in the service of author- 
ity, or disappear at the first encounter of rival factions in 
his own beloved field. Huxley's whole life, however, has 
been one pronounced and dignified protest against this very 
giant, authority. Let us not forget that falsity always and 
everywhere not only contradicts itself, but oontradicts truth 
as well ; while truth contradicts falsity, but always, and 
everywhere, it agrees with itself. Not only must every fact 
in physics agree with every other fact; every theorem of 
metaphysics be capable of reconciliation with every other 
theorem; and every truth in religion agree with every other 
truth ; but every fact, theorem, and truth in all the depart- 
ments of universal knowledge must agree from beginning to 
end. No human mind has ever been able to determine and 
to comprehend this universal reconciliation. Such a mind 
would be able to comprehend and formulate absolute truth. 
Every searcher for truth who realizes that he has not 
reached the goal where all seeking ends in absolute know- 
ing, may, nevertheless, realize that these conditions and re- 
lations belong to truth, the essence of which he does not 
comprehend. He may thence deduce the proposition : that 
■the apprehension of knowledge consists quite as much in re- 
moving discrepancies, and irreconcilable paradoxes, as in 
the study of truths clearly demonstrated. Any knowledge 
that man may acquire can come to him only through his own 
personal investigations. He might as well expect his body 
to be nourished by the food that another has eaten as to 
expect his mind to be cultured by another's thoughts or ex- 
periences. Blind intellectual belief — a sort of self-delusion — 
may possibly be thus derived ; but true knowledge and true 
faith, never. The basis of all knowledge is experience. The 
test of all knowledge is use. In the pursuit and attainment 
of knowledge two processes, sensation and reason, are al- 
ways combined, whether consciously or unconsciously. These 
processes concern "valid evidence and sound reasoning," but 



The Criterion of Truth. $7 

these are processes in the acquirement of evidence, not in 
the evidence itself. These pertain solely to the mind that 
investigates truth ; while truth itself is entirely another mat- 
ter. For instance, our senses tell us that a certain thing is 
hot, but they do not tell us what heat is. In this way we learn 
only our relations to heat, and its effect upon us. To a 
fabled race of salamanders, or to a man clothed in asbestos, 
heat appears to be a very different thing indeed; yet in this 
case it has not changed its essential character. Further- 
more, so simple a sensation as that of heat is under no cir- 
cumstances experienced in the same degree by any two indi- 
viduals. 

By "valid evidence" is undoubtedly meant evidence of 
the senses; and while under certain general conditions there 
is, no doubt, universal agreement, this criterion can only ap- 
proximate or lead up to real evidence; and that, too, only 
from the physical point of view. In all that pertains to 
objective phenomena, evidence is derived through the senses 
by analysis and by experiment; and the validity of such tes- 
timony is determined by repetition, by corroboration, and by 
sound reasoning. We have evidence of the senses approved 
and confirmed by reason, and human methods weighed by 
human judgment. The mind, which is here said to reason 
on the evidence of the senses, is supposed to be the result 
of physical development, the so-called function of the brain. 
Here the thing examined, the senses by which it is exam- 
ined, and the mind by which the evidence is weighed and 
measured, are all of the same general character, viz., phe- 
nomenal. The natural manifestation, the evidence, and the 
judgment depend upon motion. Consciousness as a fact, 
and as a factor, is either virtually left out of the question, 
or in the dilemma to which its admission as a factor gives 
rise is classed with mind, and put in the same category with 
the results of physical evolution. The difficulty to which 
such action leads can not be either ignored or explained 
away. It results in the forced explanation of subjeotive 



38 A Study of Man. 

experience in terms of objective phenomena, and eventually 
to the practical elimination of the subjective factor. If 
such a result were true and found adequate to cover all hu- 
man experiences, nothing could be said against it and every- 
thing for it. We can never solve an equation by dealing 
only with one of its members, and the cosmic or human equa- 
tion is no exception. Whenever a really thoughtful and in- 
telligent person is willing to be written down an out-and-out 
materialist, it is evidence that he is vainly trying to solve the 
equation of life by dealing only with one of its members. 
He may still imagine that the methods he employs, and which 
lead to unsatisfying results, will, in the future, lead to con- 
clusions more satisfactory. It is part of his nihilism, how- 
ever, to oonclude that no better results are possible to any 
one. If he could be led to see that the fault lies solely in 
his methods, and that by ignoring one member of his equa- 
tion he has made logical and faultless solution impossible, 
he might undertake to improve his methods. These better 
methods may be learned in the growth of a blade of grass, 
no less than in the bloom and beauty of the lilies of the field. 
The process by which we learn is the one process by which 
nature builds. Nature is never at cross-purposes with her- 
self, else she could never have evolved cosmos out of chaos, 
nor created the everlasting foundations of truth. 

The following suggestions are a mere outline of the fac- 
tors and conditions involved in this problem. 

Take man as we find him. Let us now suppose him to be 
divided into two equal parts for a working hypothesis. Let 
us call one part the objective, and the other the subjective. 
Hence we would have objective and subjective nature; ob- 
jective and subjective man. Let us consider analogy the 
bridge, or process, whereby, in our investigations, we may 
pass from one condition to the other. Let us call matter 
and spirit the two poles of one substance. The theater for 
the display of matter is then the material, the physical, the 
phenomenal, the objective, or the natural world. The 



The Criterion of Truth. 39 

theater for the operation of spirit is the subjeotive, spiritual, 
or noumenal world. Man being a part of this dual world of 
matter and spirit, his nature is derived from both. It is of 
no consequence now in what degree, or in what proportion, 
for man's equation is not yet solved; at best, it is only in 
process of solution. Let us further consider consciousness 
as the central fact in man's being; and let us dia- 
grammatically figure consciousness as a central point 
between his two conditions — the natural and the spir- 
itual. Let us remember that, while we know nothing of the 
real essence of consciousness, we may, nevertheless, study 
it as a fact, and discover its relations to the objective and 
subjective in man. Let us think of the origin of self-con- 
sciousness in man as the very center and quintessence of 
the germ from which his bodily fabric has been evolved ; and 
that it has grown and expanded with his growth, including 
the natural and spiritual nature, adjusting itself to all con- 
ditions ,and relations of structure and function within and 
without. Let us further consider the growth and develop- 
ment of the germ and all its subsequent unfolding in the life 
of man, as an evolution of form and faculty on the outer 
physical plane; and, again, as an involution of essence and 
type from the spiritual or subjective plane — consciousness 
expanding as the body expands and as function unfolds, but 
always maintaining the same relations to structure and func- 
tion, and always seeking equilibrium in the eccentric and 
concentric life of man. 

We have here a logical and wholly consecutive unfolding 
of human life on the two planes of existence first predicated. 
We have these three factors concerned in all processes of 
thinking or knowing, viz., objective being, consciousness and 
subjective being. It is generally agreed that experience is 
the basis and the condition of all knowing. Experience, 
then, may pertain largely to either side of the equation, 
though it can entirely ignore neither; for to disregard one 
member is to annul the foundation and conditions of life 



40 A Study of Man. 

itself. Now let us conceive that life consists in the transla- 
tion of the two worlds, the natural, and the spiritual, into 
terms of consciousness, through experience of both ; and 
that the brain-pictures, or all strictly mental operations, con- 
sist of the combined experiences derived from these two 
sources, reflected back upon the super-sensitive cerebral con- 
volutions, and thus constituting man's intellectual world — 
his personal kingdom created through his individual expe- 
riences. We then see the depth of meaning in the verse : 

"My mind to me a kingdom is." 

This concept renders a spiritual thinkable as the counter- 
part and complement of the natural. There is far more in 
support of this universal equation than at first appears. The 
physical world thus becomes but the embodiment and mani- 
festation of the spiritual, in terms of matter, space, time and 
motion. In other words, it becomes the concentration of the 
ideal, the spiritual ; and the spiritual becomes the natural 
idealized or perfected. True progress for man is a straight- 
forward climbing, on the rundles of experience, up the lad- 
der of light, from a lower to a higher being; while retro- 
gression is a journeying in the opposite direction, and leads 
to disolution and destruction. 

Something akin to this conception must have been in the 
mind of Thomas Carlyle when he wrote : "Matter exists only 
spiritually, and to represent some idea and body it forth." 

If to experience is to know, then to know is to become. 
To know the truth is to become the truth. Hence the evi- 
dence of the senses is partial testimony derived only from 
one side of being; and, no matter how logically such evi- 
dence may be used in reasoning, so long as it is unsupple- 
mented by evidence reaching consciousness from the other 
side of man's being, it may lead to opinions, and be assigned 
a place in the intellectual kingdom of man ; but it can play 
no part in the everlasting kingdom of truth. Science and 



The Criterion of Truth. 41 

philosophy are in no sense formulated results, but simply 
methods, when rightly apprehended and correctly used. 
Neither process alone can ever arrive at absolute truth. 
Science may discover facts; philosophy nfay disclose prin- 
ciples; and the co-operation of both, as methods, may aid the 
understanding of man in the apprehension of truth. Hence 
the expressions scientific truth, philosophic truth, and meta- 
physic truth, are misnomers. All science is philosophic; all 
philosophy is scientific; and all true religion is scientific, 
philosophic and metaphysic. Both science and philosophy 
are religious, so far as the natural province of one touches 
upon or overlaps the other ; for each is but a method where- 
by the consciousness of man, which is one, seeks truth, 
which is also one. The criterion of truth for man lies not 
in the estimate of the senses, nor in a specific process of 
reasoning upon phenomena confined to one-half of his na- 
ture; but in the co-ordinate harmony which he is able to 
bring out of the chaos of all his varied experiences. The 
disharmony and jarring discord belong to man; the har- 
mony and pleasing concord, in all their fullness of beauty, 
belong to truth ; and when all discord disappears, and uni- 
versal concord 'appears, then truth will belong to man. 
Then, and then only, will man and truth be one. To know 
is to live the truth. 



CHAPTER II. 



MATTER AND FORCE. 



Though scientists have hitherto been unable to agree as 
to the essential nature and constitution of matter, and though 
they confess their entire ignorance of the essence of force, 
yet no one who has given the subject any serious considera- 
tion will for a moment doubt that matter, in some form, has 
always existed. Certain writers may attach arbitrary mean- 
ings to such expressions as primordial atoms, and claim for 
science itself that certainty and exactness for which it 
everywhere seeks credence. It is well to remember that, on 
many occasions, the foremost advocates of science have con- 
fessed their entire ignorance of the final constitution of 
things; and that, at best, they only entertain hypotheses, in 
support of which they have only probabilities to urge. Even 
these may disappear tomorrow in the light of some larger 
discovery. The highways of knowledge are everywhere 
strewn with the wrecks of old hypotheses, though many of 
the fragments may still be recognized in the newer struc- 
tures that have replaced them. Thus the vortices of Des- 
cartes appear in latest theories as the inter-molecular spaces 
or dynaspheres ; and the monads of Leibnitz are largely trib- 
utary to our idea of atoms and molecules. In chemistry, 
many of the old ideas may still be recognized in their new 
dress, and in spite of an entirely new nomenclature. 

The test of a theory is its application to fact, and to the 
sequence of its relations to other facts and theories. No 
theory, applicable to very wide groups of facts, is ever quite 
satisfactory in all cases. Whenever it very nearly approaches 

(42) 



Matter and Force. 43 

this condition, the theory gives place to a recognized law of 
nature. The student of nature thus carefully feels his way, 
step by step, from theory to fact; from hypothesis to law; 
while the most certain knowledge possessed by science, re- 
garding the ultimate structure of things, is the certainty that 
it does not know. The atomic theory, now so generally in 
vogue, offers no exception to the above reflections. If, 
therefore, science is thus uncertain with regard to matter 
and force, no theory can be called orthodox; and any sug- 
gested modification of any theory is legitimate. 

Very important discoveries have been made in recent 
times, but these discoveries concern the relations, rather 
than the essence of things. The finer appliances of modern 
art in mechanics and physics, together with the higher un- 
folding of the senses in man, have brought to view large 
groups of facts in nature's finer forces; while the records 
of all these discoveries are so widely diffused, that relations 
are also discovered between different groups of facts that at 
first seemed entirely dissimilar. 

The mechanical equivalence of heat with correlative 
modes of motion, as now apprehended, and the general prin- 
ciple of the correlation of force, to which the former discov- 
ery gave rise, led also to the concept of the conservation or 
indestructibility of force. It would fill volumes to record the 
advancement in physical science that has followed these 
great discoveries. 

Among the more recent deductions in the realm of the 
higher dynamics are two discoveries which, from a scientific 
point of view, not only seem to transcend all others, but 
seem also to open the door to a new world — not as dissev- 
ered from the old world of crude matter and force, but inti- 
mately connected with it. These are the discovery of vibra- 
tory energy by Mr. Keely, and that of radiant matter by Mr. 
Crookes. The intrinsic value and wide range of applicabil- 
ity of these two discoveries will be best apprehended by those 
who are also familiar with the rapid unfolding of the higher 



44 A Study of Man. 

sensibility of man, as witnessed by thousands of careful stu- 
dents and experimenters in the realm of psychology. So 
rapid, indeed, has been the advancement in this last-named 
direction, and so potent and dangerous the forces and power 
revealed, that legal enactments have already been instituted 
to control experiments and protect society against the 
threatened danger. It may thus readily be seen that progress 
in physics goes hand in hand with progress in metaphysical 
discovery. To appreciate the one, it is necessary to keep in 
view also the other, as together indicating the signs of the 
times. We are thus beginning to realize the refinement of 
which matter and force are capable; and the terra incognita, 
whose shores we have thus been permitted to approach, is 
destined to swallow up not only the unknown but also the 
hitherto unknowable in both these realms. 

The methods of modern science are approximately exact; 
but the results at which it has arrived are by no means final. 
In the use of the term "exact science," this important fact 
is not always kept clearly in view. The relative force of any 
scientific dictum being thus clearly defined, it will also ap- 
pear that all questions, here as elsewhere, are open ques- 
tions. With every important disoovery there is a checking 
back over all previous conclusions, and the inaccuracies, 
thus made to disappear, become constantly less and less 
prominent. A path so often trodden in time becomes smooth. 

It is no part of our purpose to cast reproach upon any of 
the discoveries of science, nor seriously to question the re- 
sults at which it has arrived, so long as they are thus held 
tentatively. All scientists, by the way, worthy of the name, 
thus look upon the results of their investigations. If, in 
dealing with pure physics, science has achieved final results 
in nothing, and can really boast only of more or less exact 
methods of research, then no one wearing the garb of sci- 
ence can afford to ridicule either philosophy, psychology, or 
religion. Each of these departments can boast of methods 
quite as exact as those of science itself; for there is a true 



Matter and Force. 45 

psychology, as there is a true science. Here again, as will 
be more fully shown elsewhere, the truth lies in the method 
and not in the partial results; for inasmuch as the results 
are, in all cases, tentative or provisional, rather than final, 
they are not results, but methods. 

The idea of the eternity or indestructibility of matter can 
be traced back to very remote times ; and, though the theory 
of the correlation and conservation of force, in its present 
form, is of recent date, glimpses of it may be found even be- 
yond our present epoch. Plato says that we see by virtue of 
the light which is in the eye commingling with that of the 
sun; thus implying terms of correlation; while in the San- 
scrit terms of the still more ancient Hindoo philosophies the 
principle is more clearly apprehended. 

We have, then, the indestructibility of matter, the hy- 
pothetical atom, and the indestructibility of force. Matter 
is the theater of motion, and offers resistance to force, 
though not in the sense of the old idea of inertia; and force 
is that which produces motion in matter. The conclusion is, 
therefore, inevitable: there is no matter without force, and 
no force without matter. They are indestructible and in- 
separable. Therefore, every hypothetical atom, as every 
particle of mass, is in ceaseless motion ; for if an atom cease 
to move, it must cease to be. With every change in the re- 
lations and combinations of atoms, new forces, or different 
modes of motion, are manifested. Even a nascent point in 
the breaking up of compounds, and in the formation of new 
ones, cannot be conceived where motion ceases for an in- 
stant; this would annihilate force. Motion can only be 
transformed into other modes, like the change of figures in 
an endless dance, weaving new forms in the dizzy whirl of 
life and death. 

Certain experiments, notably those of Tyndall on sound- 
waves, have shown that small particles of matter, like grains 
of sand, free to move, as on a drumhead, or any vibrating 
disc, will arrange themselves in exact geometrical figures, 



46 A Study of Man. 

according to the sound-wave directly or indirectly induced. 
In the transmission of motion from without, through waves 
of air, there is a visible response from the free-moving mole- 
cules, as when the disc is also made to vibrate directly; in 
either case, geometrical figures are produced. The principle 
of oonsonant rhythm is illustrated by the tuning of two 
pianos in unison, and witnessing in one instrument the repe- 
tition of tones or chords produced on the other. A large 
class of substances in nature are recognized by the form and 
color of the crystals to which they give rise. The requisite 
condition for crystallization is solution, so that the particles 
of the crystallizing substances shall be free «to move among 
themselves; without solution the process is a very slow one. 
This movement of particles to produce exact forms is crudely 
illustrated by the sand-grains. The uniform shape of the 
crystals formed by any given substance shows that substance 
to be capable of responding to certain definite waves of mo- 
tion only ; and it shows, also, that the form of the wave here 
underlies, rather than impinges upon, the crystallizing sub- 
stance, polarizing it, as we shall see further on. Within and 
without, however, there must be consonant rhythm; and the 
form of the crystals, as doubtless to some extent their color 
and prismatic quality, are determined by the equilibrium es- 
tablished between the external and internal waves of mo- 
tion. This adjustment of motions must be by exact ratios, 
or equimultiples, according to the principles of harmony. It 
is by no means, then, a fanciful conclusion, from the fore- 
going outlines, that every atom of matter in the universe is 
set to music, and that the forms of crystals, and all the 
varied shapes in nature, lie concealed in rhythm and laws of 
harmony. The very atoms may be said to sing for joy in the 
dawn of every created form; for life is essential harmony, 
and harmony is joy. 

In the formation of all chemical compounds there may be 
traced certain definite laws of proportion that one substance 
bears to another; and though one or more substances may, 



Matter and Force. 47 

singly or together, enter into many compounds, the propor- 
tions and relations are, in every case, predetermined and 
arbitrarily fixed. No matter what artificial compounds man 
may discover or devise, he can only conform to this fixed and 
inherent law of proportion; if he strives to ignore it, nature 
only laughs at his folly and conceit, and stubbornly refuses 
to combine in any other way. A very important part of 
chemistry consists in the discovery of inherent laws of pro- 
portion. 

We thus discern not only force, but principles, underly- 
ing all phenomena of nature. The process of crystallization 
shows the persistence of an underlying force everywhere 
present, and operating in a uniform manner. This force 
must be judged by its effects. We know far less of its own 
mode of motion than of the mode which it induces in matter. 
It is quite conceivable that the various modes of motion, 
designated as heat, light, 'electricity, and the like, are but 
modifications 0'f this one underlying force, or its phenomenal 
display under varying conditions of vibration. Thus are 
determined the phenomena of organization no less than those 
of crystallization. This idea of a widely diffused and basic 
force implies also a basic substance with which it is insepa- 
rably connected; else must we change our previous concepts 
of matter and force. 

Creative energy displays an apparent or relative fixation 
of forms in the midst of unceasing change. Organization, 
like crystallization, is, in a crude sense, a temporary fixa- 
tion of form. The first step in this fixation of form is polari- 
zation. Diffused and indefinite waves or vibrations concen- 
trate and become definite, and follow given lines. We have 
seen that this polarizing tendency subtends all phenomena, 
and all building up of forms in inorganic nature. The same 
principle will be shown to obtain in morphology, or in or- 
ganic nature. There is, in every sense, a change from the 
formless to the formed, and the more definite the form the 
greater its stability. 



48 A Study of Alan. 

If we consider the so-called elementary substances, such 
as science has hitherto been unable to analyze, as made up 
of invisible atoms, similar atoms being grouped to form a? 
element, with certain definite relations existing between 
different groups, we shall be justified in supposing that all 
of the so-called elements have something in common. Hence, 
from the matter-side of our ploblem, as from the force-side, 
we can think back to a common substratum. If from the 
force-side we discern a polarizing tendency, and from the 
matter-side a substratum, our superstructure, which we 
found uniting at the apex as matter and force, must be even 
more compact at its base. We thus discern an underlying 
substance everywhere diffused, of great tenuity, permeating 
all things, as the common basis of matter and force. This 
substance, with its characteristic polarizing tendency, and 
its universal diffusibility, outwardly displayed in atoms of 
elements, and in all objective phenomenal nature, is mag- 
netism. If magnetism be also atomic in structure, the atoms 
may be conceived as infinitely smaller than those of the ele- 
ments; and as this substratum may be considered as either 
matter or force, lying back of both, it answers to the dyna- 
spheric force, which at once unites and separates, holds to- 
gether, and yet keeps apart, the larger atoms of the various 
forms of matter designated as solid, fluid and gas. The so- 
called "radiant matter" would be magnetism itself, divorced 
from all other matter, freed from the so-called elements, ra- 
diant when not beclouded by overlying grosser atoms, yet 
matter still. If this view, thus far, is warranted by such 
facts as we possess, we must go still farther back in our 
analysis. That which underlies both matter and force, and 
'■ thus surrounds both molecule and mass, and which is recog- 
nized in all matter as a polarizing tendency, yet only a finer 
grade of matter, must, therefore, lie at the center of, as well 
as diffuse our hypothetical atoms, and so polarize them. Ag- 
gregations of atoms to form elements, and aggregations of 
elements to form compounds, as well as aggregations to form 



Matter and Force. 49 

crystals and organisms, can be logically conceived as polari- 
zations. Elements may thus be positive, and others negative 
as to each other, and so give rise to the locking of atoms to 
form compounds. The atoms of substances like oxygen may 
have complex poles; while others like hydrogen may have 
simple poles. Hence many forms of attraction would rise 
from polarization. If magnetism itself is simply luminous, 
and this luminous substance stands potentially for what we 
call matter and force, the motion which here, as elsewhere, 
is the logical sequence, can be conceived as a quivering or 
exceedingly rapid vibration, an infinite number of infinitesi- 
mal atoms within an invisible area, vibrating with incalcu- 
lable rapidity. Groups of such atoms by transference of 
thes vibration into scintillations would appear luminous ; or 
if motion were .transformed into waves in a definite direction 
in matter, they would polarize it; or in rarefied matter, 
would give rise to light; or again in more solid matter, to 
heat ; and so on with the round of physical forces. 

We are still in the realm of matter and force, or phenom- 
enal nature, and we may -still go back of all this and dig 
deeper. It must not be forgotten that with every change in 
the mode of motion, or correlation of force, there is in- 
duced a corresponding change in the so-called properties of 
matter. If the different forces arise from the one force, 
magnetism, so must the different elements arise from the 
one substance, magnetism. Thus we may conceive of all at- 
tractions or affinities. We have so far reasoned back to the 
common basis of visible nature displayed as matter and force. 
Magnetism would seem to be the matrix of matter, and the 
parent of force. This view is immensely fortified, at every 
step, by the phenomena and sensations of animal magnetism, 
or hypnotism. 

The theater in which are displayed the phenomena of 
matter and force we call space ; but, unless we are very 
guarded, our concept of atoms will lead us to an absurd con- 
cept of space. Having traced our atoms to minuteness suffi- 



50 A Study of Man. 

cient for our purposes, and having relinquished the idea of 
dimension regarding them, dimension thus merging in im- 
mensity, space remains as mere emptiness — a boundless 
vacuum, in which the finer atoms float. This, however, is 
altogether inconsistent with the eternity of matter and force 
in any form, as this would involve the idea of both the be- 
ginning and the end of matter and force — the equivalent of 
saying that there was a time when there was absolutely 
nothing. Time cannot antedate phenomena, for it belongs 
to the succession of phenomena ; and it is inconceivable apart 
from motion. What then is space, as logically related to 
other concepts? In beginning, let us change names, and so 
get rid of the dangerous idea of emptiness. For space let 
us say ether, not ether in space, but ether as space itself. 
Let us think of this ether as boundless, continuous, therefore 
unparticled, and thus without qualities or attributes, as we 
apprehend them on the physical side. While forming the 
substratum for magnetism, as magnetism forms the sub- 
stratum for matter and force, outwardly either will be the 
boundary between the objective and the subjective worlds. 
If we think of the natural world as adhering to the ether 
and displayed outwardly, we may think of the spiritual world 
as also adhering to the same ether but displayed inwardly. 
If the sensuous life of man is related to the phenomena cf 
outer nature displayed by atoms of matter and modes of mo- 
tion, so is the supersensuous life of man related to subjec- 
tive nature displayed with basic continuity and essential 
form, with consciousness as the middle term equally related 
to both worlds — the objective, atomic world of matter, and 
the subjective, continuous world of spirit. Thus, in atoms 
and suns, in the infinitely small as in the infinitely great, in 
center and circumference, the natural and the spiritual are 
still one. If by analogy we seek to penetrate beyond the 
ether, we must either abandon our idea of atoms, or con- 
ceive of matter now in its upward ascent approaching its 
opposite pole, spirit, as also existing in another state. But 



Matter and Force. 51 

we can abandon here our atomic hypothesis without aban- 
doning matter itself. The continuity of matter refined be- 
yond the purest ether is thinkable, and our concept of spirit 
thus becomes as rational as our concept of matter, seeing 
that we know the essential nature of neither, and can only 
partially comprehend relations. The basis of the continuity 
on the one side, and the basis of the atoms on the other, is 
the ether. As on the physical side, mass and so-called iner- 
tia, or gross matter, appears to predominate, so on the spir- 
itual side, force appears to predominate and matter seems 
to be held in abeyance. This shifting of factors would con- 
stitute for us the natural and the spiritual world — our idea 
of the universe. In thus exchanging the idea of vacuity for 
that of continuity, we do no violence to any rational con- 
cept of matter and force. It will be no longer rational to 
talk about vacuum or partial vacuum. We can well afford 
to dispense with the term, since it has ceased to convey any 
rational idea. 

If our reasoning thus far holds and magnetism be found 
to be the fourth state of matter, ether would seem to be a 
fifth ; and the series would stand thus : solid, liquid, gas, mag- 
netism, ether. With this conclusion, we shall have both to 
modify and to enlarge our idea of atoms and elementary sub- 
stances. In the case of that of the most active and most 
widely diffused element, oxygen, for example, we may con- 
ceive of one of its atoms as consisting of concentrated rings 
or layers, a ring of magnetism enclosed in an outer capsule ,< 
and inclosing an inner nucleus of ether with each of these ; 
rings or spheres penetrating the others, the mere gross being 
aggregations or concentrations of the more refined. We 
may further conceive of vibrations intense enough and rapid 
enough to disassociate the outer rings from the ether, though 
unable to liberate pure force, yet competent to bring into 
activity in another form far more refined and intense the 
substance, magnetism, which is both matter and force; and 
this Mr. Keely seems to have accomplished. Something 



52 A Study cf Man. 

like this occurs when water is decomposed by a current of 
electricity. If it be once conceived that substances akin to 
oxygen, called elements, have originated from magnetic sub- 
stance, it may also be seen how they may return to their 
primordial matrix. Ozone may thus be found to be an in- 
termediate state between oxygen and magnetism; one form 
may be polarized oxygen, and the other non-polarized This 
idea of the compound nature of atoms is not new, nor is it 
without support. The magnetism of an iron bar may be 
explained by assuming that the atoms that compose it are 
polarized, the property of the bar representing the qualities 
of the atoms combined. In all germs from which living 
forms arise the structure is similar to that suggested for 
an atom of oxygen. Reasoning backward by analogy, as in 
the case o>f the magnetic bar, there must either be a break 
at some point in the orderly sequence of nature, or every 
atom that goes to form the germ must typically represent 
it. 

Matter and force,, inseparable and indestructible, may, 
nevertheless, disappear from view; they may pass from the 
active to the passive plane and still exist as invisible, un- 
particled matter and potential force. This view is also sup- 
ported by analogy. Every process visible to man consists 
in a crude sense of an appearance .and a disappearance, of 
growth and decay, of building up and tearing down, of 
death and rejuvenescence. The invisible becomes visible ; 
the visible becomes invisible. In this concept we have only 
traced the process further back, just as we trace the prin- 
ciple of the subdivision of matter back to the concept of 
invisible atoms. While the quantity of matter and force in 
the universe may be conceived as forever the same, unceas- 
ing motion leads creative processes out from the bosom 
of the all-enfolding ether only to lead them back to the source 
from whence they came, and so constitute and continue the 
cycles of creation. Here, again, analogy supports our ar- 
gument. If suns and planets revolve, they must have de- 



Matter and Force. 



53 



rived the forces by which they revolve from some princi- 
ple antedating their appearance, viz., the cyclic process of 
creation itself. 

If the foregoing considerations seem transcendental, let 
it be remembered that we are presently to enter the realm 
of vital dynamics, there to examine the processes of life 
and of thought. We shall find these processes complicated, 
though made up of the display of matter and force, the same 
matter and the same force that are herein discussed. There 
can be no essential difference between matter and force 
found in the living structure and that found outside of it; 
otherwise the latter could not be converted into the former. 
Nutrition brings about such a conversion. It may thus be 
seen, that to begin the study of life without at least an out- 
line of the principles of physics, would be as fruitless as to 
attempt to solve the most difficult problem of differential 
calculus without a knowledge of the laws of differentiation. 
The useless theories regarding human nature and human 
life arise through ignorance or disregard of these basic 
principles. Like plants that grow in the air they take no 
root, and flourish only for a brief season. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PHENOMENAL WORLD. 



In the preceding chapter an outline is given of the gen- 
eral principles of physics, as pertaining particularly to mat- 
ter and force, in their hasic relations and manifestations in 
smaller areas. We are now briefly to consider those wider 
displays regarding nature as a whole. If man derives his 
body and his energy from matter and force it follows that 
he is also a part of the world about him, an existence in 
space and time. To a certain extent he is related to all na- 
ture. If we would clearly discern at what point and to what 
extent man transcends the sphere of physics, we must first 
definitely determine his relations to that sphere. 

The persistence of motion as coincident with matter and 
force implies ceaseless change. This change involves atom, 
particle, molecule and mass. It therefore involves all or- 
ganisms, whether animal, vegetable or mineral. Instability 
and transition are indelibly stamped on all created things. 
Nothing is what it seems, as all things exist only by virtue 
01 change, ceaseless change. All human experience, which 
is the basis of all our knowledge, is a record of changes oc- 
curring in our states of consciousness. 

Creation naturally divides into halves matter and spirit. 
Spirit transcends matter as refinement transcends grossness, 
as light transcends darkness, as good transcends evil. Mat- 
ter exists externally as body; spirit, internally as essence. 
If matter and spirit are the opposite poles of cosmos so are 
they the opposite poles of an atom, as an atom typifies a 
universe. A universe made up of particles without affini- 

(54) 



The Phenomenal World. 



55 



ties, with no common basis upon which to combine, would 
not even be conceivable as chaos; it would be a condition 
unthinkable. There is no more marvelous revelation in na- 
ture than the intimate relations everywhere seen. Atoms 
and molecules flock together like doves seeking their mates. 
A volume might be written on the Loves of the Atoms, as 
the elder Darwin, and Ovid before him, wrote on the Loves 
of the Plants. There could be no attraction, no affinity 
without duality. This principle is equally true in atoms and 
in man. Emerson says: "Husband and wife must be very 
two before they can be very one." If attraction is universal, 
so is duality. There can be no attraction without something 
to attract and something to be attracted. Attraction implies 
bath the opposite and the similar; or, more accurately, at- 
traction implies repulsion. These are related to each other 
as positive and negative poles; hence opposites attract and 
repel. Attraction and repulsion are either two equal forces, 
or opposite poles of one force. As motive powers they are 
equal. Just as one body moves toward another by attraction, 
it moves from it by repulsion. Two atoms attracted to each 
other, locked in a firm embrace, saturate each other and be- 
come homogeneous. Repulsion separates them just as at- 
traction brought them together. Spirit thus impregnates 
matter, while matter embodies spirit; and thus are created, 
atoms and worlds. The atomic stability of elementary sub- 
stances, and the comparative instability of compounds, may 
thus turn on this problem of impregnation and repulsion. 
Duality is then both basic and cosmic. One principle leads 
forth the busy atoms and swings in space the teeming worlds. 
Our forms of thought and modes of expression not only re- 
veal duality, but both thought and expression originate 
from duality and are possible only as such. So-called 
evidence of the senses concerns the external world of 
phenomena, though beyond the five senses recognized there 
are others that undoubtedly go deeper and penetrate beyond 
the objective plane. The senses by which we apprehend the 



56 A Study of Man. 

world of phenomena around us are also phenomenal in char- 
acter; change within, as change without. To sense a thing 
is to appreciate the changes that characterize it, and the re- 
lations that concern it; but to sense only is not to under- 
stand, as will be shown further on. All phenomena occur 
in matter, space, time and motion. In the preceding chap- 
ter space was conceived as the underlying ether. In the larger 
display of nature as related to movements of mass occurring 
in time, our ideas of space regard distance and dimension; 
the magnitude of objects and the distance between them, or 
our ideas of height, depth and breadth, are conditioned by 
the senses. The eye is thus our space-organ, and the ear 
our time-organ; while beyond the phenomenal character of 
external nature and sensation there is also the element of 
imperfection in the organs of sense. Our ideas of space and 
time are always relative, never absolute; and are further- 
more often defective, owing to defects in us. If one were 
to imagine himself suspended in space, out of sight of any 
object upon which the eye could rest, his ideas of distance 
and of size would soon disappear; and there would also dis- 
appear his idea of time. In place of these ideas would come 
the feeling of immensity. It may thus be seen that our ideas 
of space and time are definitely related to matter and motion, 
and that our sensations and thoughts dependent on these are 
phenomenal also, and are of the same general character. 
Taking now this objective, phenomenal world as a whole, 
we find, according to our previous conception, that it con- 
stitutes one-half of our knowable world, bodied forth from 
the ether as the senses are bodied forth from consciousness. 
Sir Isaac Newton designated the ether Sensorium Dei; we 
might call it the Consciousness of Nature. Thus the sen- 
sorium of God is the consciousness of nature; while the con- 
sciousness of God is the creator of the world. Thus the In- 
finite center, the Divine Consciousness, is impressed on the 
sensitive ether and bodied forth in all created forms ; while 
the same outward nature, through the sensorium and varied 



The Phenomenal World. 



57 



experiences of man, is reproduced in his consciousness. 
Eventually through the unfolding of higher senses the sub- 
jective world may be re-created in man. It has elsewhere 
been suggested that when matter disappears from the vis- 
ible world beyond the gaseous and below the plane of mag- 
netism, thus becoming unparticled and no longer manifest- 
ing as matter and force, as we understand them, motion must 
also disappear. Matter and force in this hypothesis have 
changed places and are differently related. To this inner 
realm elsewhere displayed, as the outer realm is displayed in 
space and time, we may attach the idea of stability, and there 
may be as many invisible worlds for the display of this sub- 
jective mode of being as there are visible worlds in the ob- 
jective. It would be reasonable to suppose that every vis- 
ible world has its invisible counterpart; that there are twin 
worlds of matter and spirit, as twin atoms, negative and 
positive — one modulus .running through cosmos. We are 
not at present concerned with these invisible worlds further 
than to show a logical basis for the concept that the objec- 
tive world of matter as a whole, as in every part, is supple- 
mented by a subjective world of rest, where the phenomenal 
becomes the noumenal. Thus is carried out our idea of 
duality, the ether being the common medium of exchange. 
This subjective world stands related to the objective as 
cause to effect; and when the resulting cycle of change has 
run its course there is a return to the subjective world. 
Here the terms cause and effect change places, and on the 
subjective plane are worked out the effects of the previous 
objective existence. Again the cycle is complete, and again 
there is an output from the subjective to the objective plane. 
Novel as may seem the foregoing statements, they are every- 
where justified by analogies in nature, and are put forth as 
the logical sequence of the universal principle of polarity, 
which again rests on cosmic duality, the modulus of nature. 
Though the principle of polarity is everywhere mani- 
fest, and though it is a clue to the labyrinth of life, to the 



58 A Study of Man. 

process of thought and to the destiny of man, its most valu- 
able service is in enabling us to determine the true position 
and relations of consciousness, thus making rational and 
comprehensible the process of knowing through experience. 
Here again involution and evolution, as general expressions 
for the dual process, conform to the general equation of na- 
ture. Very few human equations are complete. Few per- 
sons have an equal experience of both objective and subjec- 
tive nature, and few are really aware how largely experi- 
ence is involved from the subjective plane. The cosmic 
duality of which we form a part is so intimately blended 
with our daily life that it is often entirely overlooked, and is 
only discerned when we endeavor to discover the real nature of 
things. So mixed and blended are the varied experiences of 
life, so complicated all mental processes, that it is difficult 
to separate any single experience from its fellows in order 
to discover its basis and meaning. It is true that we can 
hardly imagine any two experiences as occurring at the same 
time; but the memory of former experiences and the antici- 
pation of those to come lead inevitably to the very confusion 
named. With memory on the one side and with hope and 
fear on the other, past, present and future almost hopelessly 
bewilder us. It thus transpires that such expressions as 
experience, real and ideal, convey no very definite meaning 
to most persons. All nature is, moreover, full of paradoxes. 
There are a thousand questions that the thoughtful and sin- 
cere can answer in the affirmative or in the negative with 
equal propriety. This is equivalent to saying that these 
questions are so involved that they cannot be satisfactorily 
answered by yea or nay. And it signifies more than this : it 
signifies that every subject may be viewed from two sides, 
from the objective, and from the subjective; or from the 
side of self-interest, and from that of universal interest. 
These last named are often found to clash. The personal 
never gives way to the universal without a struggle. Self- 
preservation is not only the first law of nature, it is the first 



The Phenomenal IV odd. 59 

and the last law, the alpha and the omega of egotism. Na- 
ture everywhere sacrifices individuals to preserve the race. 
The first, the highest law of nature, is altruism. And it is 
because man persists in reading this law backwards that 
humanity suffers and countless millions mourn. Nor is the 
cup of man's egotism yet full; as egotism enshrines itself in 
a creed, overleaps the bounds of time, and dooms more than 
half of the human race to everlasting misery. With the un- 
folding of the higher faculties of man he will discern 
a more beneficent purpose in nature ; for just in proportion 
as he rises above self-interest and pride will he truly com- 
prehend the divine. He will find not only that the phenom- 
enal world of sense and time, but that the spiritual world 
is here and now, and that he has only to open his soul to its 
divine influence to become conscious of its presence. The 
key to this unfolding is not self-interest nor egotism, but 
altruism, whereby the phenomenal and the noumenal are 
made one in consciousness and in life. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE. 

The basis of all knowledge is experience. This has been 
stated previously and will more fully appear in the sequel. 
To experience is to know. To learn and to know are not 
synonymous though they are kindred terms. So far as learn- 
ing is a mere mental process and related to memory it is to 
the individual an alien ; only as learning enters consciousness 
and molds the individual life, only as experience thus co- 
ordinates truth, does learning become real knowledge. For 
the present we need only say that consciousness bears a dif- 
ferent relation to the brain from thought. One learns as 
he apprehends, and this is a mental process; one knows as 
he comprehends, and this concerns conscious experience of 
truth. All knowledge is derived through two factors, the 
subjective and the objective. Valid evidence and correct 
reasoning are processes that lead to knowledge, but they are 
not the only ones. Thinking is that peculiar process of the 
brain resulting from sensation ; it is the experience of sen- 
sation. Thought and consciousness are inter-related and 
mutually dependent in man as now constituted, but they are 
related as sense and sensorium, as surface and center. 
Reasoning is thought proceeding in an orderly manner, by 
which we discern the relations of things. The structure of 
the brain and its functions exist by virtue of the very prin- 
ciples which by reason we everywhere discover in nature. 
We might say that these principles have created the brain 
and mind of man, and that in the very process of knowing 
man re-creates these principles. If then thought, as a re- 
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Philosophy and Science. 61 

sultant of sensation and feeling, builds the brain, only- 
logical and rational thought can perfect its structure and 
iully develop its function. Logical thought is the orderly 
procession of those principles or processes of which reason 
-apprehends the normal relation. Thought like sensation is 
phenomenal. It depends upon change or motion, and is de- 
rived through the senses from the phenomenal world with- 
out. Thought is, therefore, the moving panorama of the 
brain, reproducing the world to consciousness. Evidence of 
the senses, passed upon by reason and approved by experi- 
ence, becomes knowledge; but for this knowledge to be in 
any sense complete, the thing or the principle must have 
been reproduced in miniature in man. Thus to know a 
.thing is to be the thing known. Thought and feeling, there- 
fore, reproduce the world in consciousness. The thought- 
pictures are fleeting, but consciousness records and pre- 
serves them, not in detail, but in essence as precipitated re- 
sults. We thus have the thing known, the knower, and the 
process of knowing. In real knowledge the thing known 
and the knower are merged into one. Man has become the 
thing he sought to know, hence the process of knowing dis- 
appears; it is consummated. We have seen that knowledge 
considers facts and relations as they have been transmitted 
i;o consciousness by thought and feeling. Facts relate to 
single things ; relations, to one or many things. A fact once 
determined reveals other relations, and every new relation 
brings to light other facts. To obtain facts we must tear 
things apart. To discover relations we must put them to- 
gether. We obtain facts by analysis. We discover rela- 
tions by synthesis. These two methods enter, whether con- 
sciously or unconsciously, into all our processes of knowing. 
Science deals more especially with the world of phenomena 
which includes sensation and thought, leading up to con- 
sciousness. The method of science is analysis. Philosophy 
■-deals especially with the world of reason, principles and 



62 A Study of Man. 

laws, and its method is synthesis; but as both the results 
of analysis and the results of synthesis combine in conscious- 
ness continually, we are seldom able to separate them in con- 
sciousness. Reason discovers these two processes of an- 
alysis and of synthesis; and as thought presents the world to 
man, so reason presents man to himself. Man tastes of the 
world by experience, assimilates it by thought, compre- 
hends it by reason and intuition, and becomes it by con- 
sciousness. 

Thus it may be seen that philosophy includes and tran- 
scends science, as a law of nature transcends a fact, and 
yet one process cannot dispense with the other, for each has 
continual need of the other. Each, however, has a field and 
a method of its own. Science deals with matter in the realm 
of physics ; philosophy, with mind in the realm of meta- 
physics. As working methods in the process of knowing, 
science and philosophy cannot be separated, while in the 
analysis of all processes by reason, even the analysis of 
reason itself, science and philosophy are separate methods 
covering different realms, pursued by a single mind to ar- 
rive at one truth. 

In all our investigations into the nature of man we 
should seek for valid evidence and employ sound reasoning, 
if we would arrive at the truth. Observation must go hand 
in hand with experience, and we may fortify our own ex- 
perience at every step by the experience of others. In this 
way we may gain a very wide experience equivalent to our 
own. Having learned a fact, we do not need to verify it 
daily. If we taste, it is not essential that we devour; but 
without experience in some form, or in some degree, it is 
impossible to know or to become. The value of what we 
call experience depends entirely on the use we make of it, 
and the wisdom of the methods by which we obtain it. If 
experience be our stock in trade from which is derived not 



Philosophy and Science. 63 

only the pleasure of life but the fruit of knowledge, it is 
also well to remember that what we experience we know, 
and whatsoever we know we become. Experience and 
knowledge lead up to being. The dicta of science, like the 
dogmas of religion, are never final. These are to the flight 
of the soul in pursuit of truth as the sheltering rock is to 
the weary wings of the eagle, a rest on its journey. The 
souls of men are weighted down by creeds and dogmas, as 
though they were final truths. This is like clipping the wings 
of the eagle and chaining him to the rock. We have already 
shown that philosophy and science are processes, not re- 
sults; hence any conclusions arrived at by these processes, 
whether by deduction or induction, are in no sense final. 
No result is valid even for a day that is not derived through 
these two processes combined. The fact derived by induc- 
tive analysis of the phenomena in which it is involved must 
be fortified through synthetic deduction by the world of 
which it is a part. This involves sufficient evidence and cor- 
rect reasoning. Man constantly employs the processes which 
constitute these methods designated as science and philos- 
ophy, and the magnitude of the experience does not change 
the process, nor convert a process into a result. These uni- 
versal methods lead to similar but not to uniform results; 
for personal experience, which is everywhere the basis of 
these methods, varies continually. One who is in any sense 
a scientist and in no sense a philosopher is by no means a 
knower. He has facts and opinions rather than knowledge. 
One who is in any sense a philosopher and in no sense a 
scientist ignores facts and is a mere speculator. The first 
is usually a materialist; the second a theorist, and these 
always cast reproach on both science and philosophy. So 
also in the name of religion one may be a ritualist, may ig- 
nore both science and philosophy, may deny facts, refuse to 
reason, and so become a servant of superstition. None of 



64 A Study of Man. 

these false methods can ever lead to a knowledge of nature, 
a knowledge of man, or a knowledge of God. 

It may thus be seen that a correct apprehension of sci- 
ence and philosophy as methods, and that a correct and in- 
telligent use of these processes lead man to a knowledge of 
himself, and as this knowledge unfolds through experience 
it includes all the rest. Man will know God when he be- 
comes God-like. 



CHAPTER V. 



We behold around us everywhere one all-pervading life. 
To inquire into the nature and origin of this life is the 
province of 'the highest reason, as it is the basis for the 
manifestation of consciousness and that which makes any 
experience possible. What consciousness may be apart from 
life we do not know. It is, however, quite probable that 
life and consciousness, so far as we are concerned, are in- 
separable forms of being. Life everywhere exists in con- 
crete degrees, and qualifies in innumerable forms. So also 
with consciousness; it appears in the lower forms of life, 
unfolds into self-consciousness in man, and is already 
prophetic of higher states and conditions on superior planes 
of being. It has already been shown in the chapter on mat- 
ter and force that we do not know the real essence of either. 
Our knowledge of these is solely concerning relations and 
manifestations. If in regard to these simpler forms of exist- 
ing things the essence eludes our knowledge, we cannot ex- 
pect to grasp it on the topmost round of phenomenal na- 
ture. A thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the re- 
lations and manifestations of life and consciousness will go 
very far toward solving the riddle of the Sphynx. This rid- 
dle is propounded to every man, if he has intelligence enough 
to inquire of life its meaning, and of fate his own destiny. 
It would be entirely beyond the scope of the present work 
to inquire into the origin of life on this planet. The trans- 
mission of life from one organism to another, by which liv- 
ing forms are preserved; the conditions of matter, of force 

(65) 



66 A Study of Man. 

and of structure in which life adheres; and the relations of 
all these to each other are, however, matters that may be 
known. The last word of science as to the origin of life is 
biogenesis. Organisms manifest life; germs develop into or- 
ganisms ; and mature organisms produce germs which again 
under certain definite conditions develop other organisms, 
and so complete the cycle of life. This is biogenesis, life 
created or transmitted from previous life. This is the pro- 
cess now going on, and, so far as we can judge, has been 
going on from the dawn of creation on this planet. Perhaps 
no problem has in modern times been more ably discussed 
and more thoroughly investigated than that of spontaneous 
generation. This discussion only a few years ago became 
very animated, and involved many of the ablest minds and 
the best appliances of the day. In this discussion the en- 
deavor to show that life arises from anything but organisms 
previously endowed with life failed, and the theory of spon- 
taneous generation was abandoned. Since that time what 
is called the germ theory lias not only become widespread, 
but it has been introduced into other departments, and now 
a very large class of diseases are known to originate from 
and to be transmitted by germs. In another chapter we 
shall more fully discuss the forms of life, but it may here 
be stated that in a general sense all germs have an outer 
physical body, an inner nucleated body, and a still more cen- 
tral germinal area in which life is first manifested, and from 
which it proceeds outwardly to evolve specific forms or 
types. Not only does every living organism manifest life 
and give rise to germs that evolve into organisms, but aside 
from the manifestation of life by an organism as a whole, 
and aside from the production of germs, every organism 
transforms other matter into living matter; and this living 
matter may be readily distinguished from both the organism 
and the germ. There are very definite relations between all 
three. Here, then, are three conditions in which to study 
the manifestations of life. As the germ may be conceived 



Life. 67 

as containing potentially the organism, or the organism may 
be conceived to be an expanded germ, we are more directly 
concerned with living matter and organisms. We may say, 
in a crude sense, that organisms manifest life and produce 
germs. They are thus considered merely on the plane of 
life, above which lie the planes of sensation, feeling, thought, 
will, imagination and the like. Divested of all these, or 
rather ignoring all these, what is an organism in relation to 
the mere quality, life? This reduces the problem to the 
simplest substance, and the lowest or basic function of life. 
The simplest substance manifesting life is formless, or 
structureless living matter. This matter is relatively homo- 
geneous; one part is like every other part, without differen- 
tiation. The lowest or initial function of this simple living 
substance is innate, or spontaneous irritability. This sub- 
stance so endowed is variously named as biogen, germinal 
matter, protoplasm, and the like. For our present purpose 
we shall use the term protoplasm. It is indeed Proteus. It 
changes continually, responds to the slightest impression, is 
mobile to the last degree, and is converted into innumerable 
living forms. The fabled god Proteus, therefore, is its fit 
representative. This substance, protoplasm, however, is not 
an organism. It cannot reproduce itself. Neither is it in 
any sense a germ, though it doubtless constitutes a part of 
all germs and all organisms. Both germs and organisms 
have a definite structure and exist as definite forms, while 
protoplasm is formless. If protoplasm seems to occupy an 
inferior position, it is, nevertheless, the matrix in which ad- 
heres the very life of both germ and organism. Protoplasm 
is to organism what the ether is to the phenomenal world: 
namely, the basis of its manifestations, the theater of its 
display. The manifestation, or functional display of this 
simple living substance may be summed up in one word, ir- 
ritability. If this substance so endowed is the basis of the 
life of the organism, the basic function of the organism is 
to produce it, and so maintain its own life. This is the proc- 



68 A Study of Man. 

ess known as nutrition. We are therefore ready to define 
an organism as a body having such a cellular, or cellulo- 
vascular structure, that it can take up substances from with- 
out, inorganic materials, change their character and convert 
them into its own structure. The organism thereby nourishes 
its own structure, and maintains its own life. Nutrition is 
therefore the basic function of organisms. This is the only 
definition of an organism that has been found to apply 
equal)/ to the lowest as to the highest forms of life. An 
orgauism defined according to its higher manifestations, as 
sensation, feeling and the like, would seem to exclude 
the lower forms of life, though the innate quality of 
irritability doubtless forms the basis of all higher manifes- 
tations. All organisms, whether high or low, must eat and 
be nourished and reproduce their kind, or become extinct. 

It will now be found exceedingly profitable to institute 
comparisons between living protoplasm and the simplest liv- 
ing organisms. If we institute comparisons between simple 
living substance and a complex organism like that of man, 
little resemblance could be traced; the differentiation is too 
great. There is a group of living structures known as 
amoebae. Some of these amoebae have been described as 
structureless; there are no visible organs, and apparently 
little differentiation; placed side by side with a drop of liv- 
ing protoplasm on the slide of a microscope the resemblance 
is very close indeed, yet are there very marked differences. 
The amoeba propels itself without organs of locomotion,, 
and swims about in its drop of water like a fish in some 
land-locked sea. It does not materially change its form ex- 
cept in the act of ingestion of food or reproduction. It 
laterally gets outside of its food, flows around it, encloses it 
and so assimilates it. In the act of reproduction it becomes 
quiescent, contracts in the center, divides, and two amoeba? 
thus result from segmentation of the original structure. 
The drop of protoplasm, as, for example, the white corpuscle 
of the blood, has no such independent locomotion, though, 



Life. 69 

as it is impelled onward in the current of the circulation, it 
appears to creep along the sides of the blood-vessel, and may 
be seen to pass through its wall. It changes its form con- 
tinually, elongates to pass into a smaller vessel, and becomes 
again spherical as it emerges. It throws out prolongations 
which become blended with adjacent tissues; and finally, as 
it is seen .to pass through the wall of the vessel, it becomes 
assimilated. One may thus come very near witnessing the 
very act of nutrition, as we previously witnessed the act of 
reproduction with the amoebae. 

In dealing .only with outlines we must pass by a great 
deal of interest to the student of biology. The progressive 
transformation of living substance into tissue, with progres- 
sive change of function that accompanies all such change 
of substance, is called differentiation. Tissue is therefore 
differentiated protoplasm. All tissues are composed of cells. 
A cell is a living structure composed of an outer body, an 
inner nucleated body, and within this a germinal point or 
area. Nutrition consists, first, in the production of living 
matter from inorganic, the food; and second, in the trans- 
formation of this living matter into tissue. The food is rela- 
tively heterogeneous; the protoplasm, relatively homogene- 
ous ; and the tissue again heterogeneous. 

Bearing in mind now the fact of ceaseless change as 
pertaining to the very existence of all matter on the visible 
plane, this change being the necessary result of the per- 
sistence of motion, we shall find that change belongs both 
to what we call dead and living matter. In fact, mobility 
is greatest in living mater. All stability, therefore, apparent 
in living forms is unreal. No matter with which we are ac- 
quainted is ever permanently endowed with life ; for, as we 
have already seen, mobility and instability, more than any 
other qualities, distinguish living matter. In regard to or- 
ganisms like those of man, we cannot say that they are com- 
posed of both dead and living matter, but rather of matter 
that is becoming alive, and of matter that is becoming dead.. 



jo A Study of Man. 

thus .revealing the underlying potency of life diffused 
throughout nature. The body of man, as of other organisms, 
is the theater of chemical, of vital, and of organic changes. 
These processes cannot be entirely separated; they inter- 
blend, though here and there one or the other may be seen 
to predominate. All organic processes are therefore chem- 
ico-vital, and the body of all living organisms is therefore 
the seat of continuous correlations of force. If, then, life 
qualifies in numberless concrete forms, called organisms, it 
also manifests in varying degrees in living substance. Liv- 
ing substance outwardly, so far as we can observe, is form- 
less, though its internal molecular structure is undoubtedly 
very complex. The process by which protoplasm is trans- 
formed into tissue with concomitant function, and which is 
called differentiation, is from the very beginning a necrosis. 
The ascending grade is from non-living matter to protoplasm, 
or the endowment with life; the descending grade is from 
protoplasm through the tissue again back to non-living mat- 
ter. Thus do the molecules and the mass of living matter, 
like all living forms, run through the cycle of life. The one 
typifies the other, just as it was shown that an atom typi- 
fies a world. The formation of tissue from protoplasm is 
similar to the formation of a crystal from amorphous mass, 
namely, a fixation of form through polarization. The older 
the tissue, the older the organism, the more angular are the 
outlines ; hence the deep lines and sharp angles of age, as 
compared with the rounded form of youth. The relation of 
protoplasm to structures like cells, tissues, germs and or- 
ganisms is thus apparent. It is the living matter out of 
which they are built, and whose presence, first and last, con- 
stitutes their matter of life, but it does not alone constitute 
the entire conditions of life. It is the basis, not the crown, 
the subject, not the object. Tissue cells are differentiated 
protoplasm, and at the center of every living cell is a bit 
of untransformed protoplasm on which are impressed the 
germinal force and the typical form of tissue or organism. 



Life. y i 

In the body of man this living matter is found float- 
ing in the blood-vessels and lymphatics, and as constituting 
the center of tissue cells. In the presence of chloroform, 
for example, both protoplasm and the amoeba lose their mo- 
bility and irritability, which are again restored in the pres- 
ence of oxygen gas. 

We have thus witnessed the display of life in the sim- 
plest substance and its least complicated form. We have 
found it herein to consist of complicated matter without 
fixed form, manifesting great sensitiveness and mobility 
whereby it readily undergoes transformation, and that it is 
endowed with irritability which later on develops into sen- 
sibility in association with consciousness. We have no evi- 
dence of the existence of consciousness outside of a living 
organism. Aside from the living substance from which or- 
ganisms are built, we must not lose sight of the fact that 
the germ that develops into an organism, and has originated 
from it, is a definite structure. The conditions under which 
the germ unfolds are ithe same in kind as those under which 
the organism itself exists, namely, by out-flowing and in- 
flowing currents or waves of motion, determining contin- 
uously equilibrium or adjustment of external and internal 
conditions. The very center of this adjustment, the center 
of the germ, and the central fact in organisms is conscious- 
ness. Therefore protoplasm which is endowed with life 
manifests consciousness, but cannot be said in any sense to 
originate it. Life and consciousness are associated together 
like matter and force, and if it be conceived that on the phys- 
ical plane, in the objective world, consciousness is depend- 
ent on life for its manifestation, it may also be conceived 
that on the spiritual plane, elsewhere considered, life may de- 
pend on consciousness for its manifestation. It is not illog- 
ical to conceive that while they may be always and every- 
where related, they may change places like matter and force 
in passing from the objective ito the subjective plane, from 
particled to unparticled matter. Life may thus pertain to 



J2. A Study of Man. 

atomic structure, and consciousness to unparticled matter.. 
The absolute unity of the basis of consciousness in man as 
related to the senses, and the individual facts of experience 
strongly support this view. It should be clearly apprehended 
that neither the fact of life nor the forms of life can ever be 
rationally explained from the objective side only, and that 
as a matter of fact the subjective is as real as the objective. 
The development of man from germ to birth passes through 
all lower forms. Embryo man is first germ, then mollusk, 
fish, bird, reptile, mammal, and finally human. So on the 
other hand, the whole sentiment life of the globe builds up- 
ward, climbs continuously toward man, and it is this ideal 
human type, everywhere prophesied in nature, that is de- 
rived from the subjective world, and which overshadows all 
life. The substance, the fact, the quality of life, therefore, 
cannot be separated from the organisms that manifest it; 
and if these are displayed on the objective plane in a mate- 
rial world, it is illogical to deny that they are also displayed 
on the subjective plane in a spiritual world. One concept 
is as natural as the other, though the consciousness of man 
may as yet concern largely the objective. Natural selection 
may presently give place to divine selection, and man be- 
come more fully conscious of the subjective world. Indeed 
we may thus read the signs of the times. 



CHAPTER VI. 

POLARITY. 

By experiment and observation facts have been discov- 
ered in regard to that something, be it force or substance, 
that is called magnetism. The most constant and uniform 
characteristic of magnetism hitherto discovered is polarity. 
If we test for magnetism, polarity reveals its presence, and 
the deflection of the magnetic needle determines also the 
quality of the magnetism present, according as the positive 
or negative pole of the needle is attracted or repelled. Po- 
larity, therefore, may be called the sign manual of mag- 
netism. In a simple voltaic battery where magnetism re- 
veals its presence, very definite changes also occur, coinci- 
dent with the appearance of magnetism. If a piece of zinc 
and a piece of platinum be immersed in acidulated water and 
allowed to touch each other, or if they be connected outside 
by a copper wire, magnetism appears, and the zinc and the 
water are decomposed; and while the platinum appears to 
remain unchanged, bubbles of hydrogen gas rise from its 
surface, showing the decomposition of water there taking 
place. When a needle or bar of iron is rendered magnetic 
it perceptibly elongates, and this has been explained as due 
to the arrangement of the particles of iron or steel, so that 
their long diameters coincide with that of the bar. In the 
magnetic bar or needle, the magnetic power appears to be 
concentrated at the ends. Having determined the presence 
of magnetism in a needle, the needle becomes a test for the 
presence of magnetism in another body. If one end of the 
needle is attracted, the other is repelled. Like poles repel 

(73) 



74 ^ Study of Man. 

each other, and unlike poles attract. In the center of the 
needle there is neither attraction nor repulsion, and this cen- 
ter is called the magnetic equator. Many theories have been 
advanced in the effort to determine the nature of magnetism 
from its phenomena. Among these, Descarte's theory of 
vortices, in which he embraced magnetic phenomena, and 
Ampere's idea of minute electrical currents circulating 
around the atoms of the magnetized body, seem to be in- 
cluded in the latest theories of dynaspheric force. Whatever 
may be the nature of magnetism, we know that it manifests 
itself to us through matter, and in no other way; and this 
manifestation consists essentially in the establishment of 
poles. Magnetism, therefore, as pure force disconnected 
from matter, is to us unthinkable. Magnetism as the sub- 
stance lying back of both matter and force, as the potency 
of each, and the matrix of all things, existing in the bosom 
of the ether, is not only thinkable but rational. 

In this cosmic matrix atoms of matter exist, the inter- 
vening spaces bearing a definite relation to the magnetic 
spaces, and these again bearing a definite relation to the 
pulsations of the ether. Magnetic ether would therefore 
constitute the essence of both the matter and force of atoms 
of all physical substances. From the physical side, mag- 
netic substance would thus constitute both the matter and 
force of all material existences. Matter and force being re- 
garded as inseparable and indestructible 'might nevertheless 
be resolved back into magnetic substance from whence they 
came. The various special modes of motion designated as 
heat, light, electricity and the like, so widely manifest in all 
forms of matter, would thus have a common basis, and the 
various forms and ratios of motion, and the change in den- 
sity, relative attraction, and rearrangement in matter would 
thus find a common denominator in magnetism. The prin- 
ciple of the correlation of force presupposes just 'this com- 
mon denominator. The polarity manifest in aggregated 
atoms of substances like iron or steel, and which can be read- 



Polarity. 75 

ily induced and modified, and again removed by artificial 
means would be explained as definite relations assumed by 
the atoms of iron or steel toward each other the primal 
atomic motions being now given a definite form and direc- 
tion, like waves proceeding in the direction of the long 
diameter of the mass. The indestructibility of force, and its 
inseparability from the atoms of matter, presupposes cease- 
less motion of the atoms, and therefore the mode of motion 
can only change so long as either matter of force exists. 
Neither matter nor force would be destroyed if resolved back 
into the primal substance, magnetism, though they would 
cease to be phenomenal, and disappear from the visible 
world. Polarity implies not only definite conditions and rela- 
tions of opposite points, like the two ends of a steel bar, 
but in order to manifest this polarity a center must also be 
defined, and this definition of a central poise reveals also 
what has been called diamagnetism, or a subordinate second- 
ary polarity at right angles with the primary. In all living 
forms the beginning of development is marked by a positing 
of a life center, and the establishment of definite relations 
between center and surface. There also result in these cases 
both the primary and secondary polarizations above referred 
to, so that in this regard organization is but a higher and 
more complex form of crystallization, as crystallization is a 
definite form of polarization. 

Now it may reasonably be asked, What induces the de- 
finite modes of motion from point to point in matter desig- 
nated as polarity? We have elsewhere shown that polariza- 
tion tends always to the fixation of form. In organisms 
mobility predominates, and polarization is subordinate. As 
old age advances the condition is reversed; mobility gradu- 
ally ceases, and the form becomes fixed, and when mobility 
ceases beyond a certain point life is no longer possible; that 
is, the waves of motion from center to surface and from sur- 
face to center are no longer possible, the center of life 
ceases, and corporeal death ensues. All living forms no less 



y6 A Study of Man. 

than all physical existences occur in space and time, in 
terms of matter, force and motion. This, however, has been 
shown to be but one side of the cosmic equation, the univer- 
sal duality. All existences bear a definite relation through 
the intervening ether to the subjective world, and the 
phenomenal term of the equation is one member only. We 
have shown that the pattern after which nature everywhere 
builds, and the laws which determine her mechanisms, 
though displayed in matter, are derived from the subjective 
world. Nature's displays are transcient, phenomenal, but 
her laws and types are noumenal, not subject to change. 
This relation of form to substance, of law to process, is a 
continual striving, a tension, and this is seen in every mani- 
festation of creative energy. On the force-side there is at- 
traction and repulsion; on the matter-side there is the com- 
ing forth and the receding back into the unseen world, so 
that manifestation on the phenomenal plane is synonymous 
with duality. No matter takes on form, nor changes its form, 
except through relations established between center and ex- 
tremities, or center and surface. The cosmic duality is 
therefore the principle of sex in nature, though it receives 
that name only in case of organisms. It is the form in which 
nature builds. Magnetism is everywhere diffused; it mani- 
fests its presence as polarity in all creative and constructive 
processes, and these depend on definite relations of struc- 
ture, manifested through motion, and as motion proceeds 
with structure it assumes more and more direct lines or 
poles. Physical nature solidifies, crystallizes, fossilizes, and 
holds in its stony grasp the remnants of the life of the globe, 
in its tendency to fixation of form through polarization. 
Physical nature is thus the fabled Medusa, turning all liv- 
ing things to stone, and Perseus is still the god of life that 
triumphs over nature, the winged Hermes with his caduceus 
and his cap of darkness, invisible for a season yet forever 
renewing his life. 

We have already seen that underlying all processes fof 



Polarity. . 77 

the building up of matter into definite farms there is a 
marked tendency to polarity. It has furthermore been sug- 
gested that .this tendency is due to the underlying stratum of 
magnetism, everywhere diffused, and springing directly 
from the bosom of the ether. If we regard magnetism as 
the polarizing tendency, and as everywhere diffused in mat- 
ter, then polarized atoms would gravitate either toward the 
positive or the negative pole of the larger mass influencing 
them. All attractions and repulsions, all affinities and an- 
tipathies in nature may thus be explained on the principle 
of polarity. The terms positive and negative are relative, 
not absolute. Polarized atoms, or a polarized mass, may 
easily be conceived as reversing their poles. Hence the 
term polarization describes only a temporary state in regard 
to definite relations. A body may be positive to one object 
and negative to another, for every hody is both positive and 
negative in itself; that is to say, it contains magnetism, and 
has two poles. Magnetism, per se, may be conceived as 
latent polarity. An isolated atom may be conceived as sim- 
ply magnetic, but when related to another it may be said to 
be polarized. Attraction may be conceived as a pulling force 
exercised in a straight line. The force thus operating be- 
tween two bodies of any given dimension, large or small, 
would be a polarization. If an iron bar can be shown, to have 
a positive and a negative end, so must all the atoms of which 
the bar is composed be conceived as polarized atoms. These 
atoms associate together, not as positive and negative atoms, 
but as bipolar atoms, so that the positive pole of one atom is 
directly related to the negative pole of another. This asso- 
ciation of atoms might be likened, in a crude manner, to a 
row of children facing one way and clasping hands, the right 
hand of one clasping the left hand of another throughout the 
series. If now we conceive an atom as globular, and as 
polarized, this would establish a central axis from opposite 
points on the surface. If we assume for this same globular 
atom diamagnetism, the atom will now be four-handed in- 



y8 A Study of Man. 

stead of two-handed. In the various tissues of the body we 
have this principle of polarity abundantly illustrated and 
abundantly proved. Man as a whole may be called a human 
magnet, of which the head is the positive pole and the foot 
the negative. The right and left sides of the body are simi- 
larly related, and so with other parts, constituting a compli- 
cated series of polarized bodies, mutually dependent and rela- 
tively independent, the lesser subordinate to the greater. 
In the movements of the blood, in the action of the heart, in 
the contraction of muscles, in short, in all vital processes 
this principle of polarity is observed. In all chemical changes 
acids and bases are related to each other and determined by 
polarity. 

"Albumin coagulates at the positive pole where oxygen 
and a frothy acid liquid are set free; hydrogen appears at 
the negative pole along with an alkaline liquid." 

Nothing has so much to do with life, health, and disease 
as polarity. Natural polarity of the entire body and of sub- 
ordinate parts constitutes that harmonious condition called 
health. A disturbance of this polarity in whole or in part 
constitutes disease, and is accompanied by distress, result- 
ing finally in disintegration and death. A corpse is a depo- 
larized mass given over to decomposition. Chemism is no 
longer subservient to vitality and therefore disintegrates 
and destroys. In atom, molecule, and mass, in ovum, em- 
bryo, and organism, this principle of polarity not only ob- 
tains, but it also determines the activity, and secures the 
harmonious relations between parts. Polarity is the univer- 
sal principle that underlies all attractions, and is the method 
by which are determined the various organic forms. This 
principle, as already shown, determines attraction and re- 
pulsion, acidity and alkalinity, contraction and relaxation, 
systole and diastole, the relations between arterial and ven- 
ous blood upon which the movement of blood depends. In 
the nervous mechanism this principle is involved in the 
sensory and motor impulse, and determines the relations of 



Polarity. 79 

thought to feeling, and of will to desire. Action in any and 
all of these cases is impossible except as the precursor of 
reaction, and follows again as a resultant of reaction. 
Atomic polarity is the epitome of cosmic duality. If now 
we consider the general appearance of the body as a whole, 
and contrast its condition and appearance in health with 
that of one diseased, we shall find that relatively the one 
condition is positive, the other negative. In health the in- 
dividual stands erect, the gait is firm and elastic, the eyes 
are bright, the cheeks flushed, the beat of ■the heart is firm 
and steady, and all the internal movements correspond in 
vigor and vitality. Now reverse all this by shock, disease, 
or fear: the face is pale, the eyes dull, the head droops, the 
knees tremble, the gait totters, the heart is unsteady and 
respiration clogged and feeble. The individual has become 
altogether negative. The action of all medicines, properly 
so-called, is upon this same principle; hence the primary and 
secondary action of drugs, or the action followed by reac- 
tion always witnessed where drugs are administered. 
Polarity is also the basic factor in pathology no less than in 
physiology and therapeutics. A chill precedes most fevers, 
local anaemia follows local hyperaemia, restlessness and irri- 
tability follow coma; and while normal and moderate action 
promotes health and perfects development, overaction or ab- 
normal action results in paralysis. 

Polarity, moreover, not only determines (the relation of 
the sexes, but determines sex itself. To vivify is to polarize. 
All .our appetites and passions, all experiences in life par- 
take of this dual form. Zest is followed by satiety, enjoy- 
ment by indifference, pleasure by pain. One of these con- 
ditions presupposes the other; one complements the other. 
If one has experienced great sorrow he has thereby devel- 
oped capacity for greater joy, for only so are the lines of ex- 
perience deepened. Were it not for this principle deter- 
mining action and reaction, no single experience could ever 
be repeated, even approximately; a single act would end the 



8o A Study of Man. 

drama of life. It is this principle of polarity that secures 
approximate rest in the midst of unceasing change ; and in 
the presence of unending dissimilarity secures comparative 
equilibrium. Observation and experience, fact and phenom- 
ena reveal this law as everywhere existing and everywhere 
operating from atom to sun, and from monera to man. It 
is cosmic and universal. It divides the substance of the 
whole creation into spirit and matter, the one positive, and 
the other negative, two poles of one substance. It again 
divides creative processes into two planes, the subjective, and 
the objective, and places over against the physical life of the 
body the spiritual life of the soul. It shows man's nature 
as equally adhering to the earthly life without and to the 
heavenly life within. We cannot even conceive of unity 
without duality, of harmony without melody. The Father- 
hood of God involves the Motherhood of Nature — unity in 
diversity and diversity in unity. Elohim is creative duality. 



CHAPTER VII. 

LIVING FORMS. 

The cosmic form in which all things are created and in 
which all things exist is a universal duality. Both plants 
and animals reveal this duality as the basis upon which their 
multiplication and diffusion over the earth depend. Man 
is created male and female and only as such does he create. 
The modulus of nature, that is, the pattern and method after 
which she everywhere builds, is an ideal man. Ideal man 
is -man at his best estate, perfected in nature and triumphant 
in spirit, at peace with himself and in harmony with both 
God and nature. In ancient writings this archetypal man 
is called Adam Cadman. Nature everywhere strives after 
this ideal, and builds after this form. The simplest embodi- 
ment of life is prophetic of man. Building everywhere after 
this pattern, nature reveals the elements of man in process 
of adjustment and degrees of unfolding. Involution and 
evolution express the twofold process of the dual law of 
creation, corresponding to the two planes of existence, the 
subjective and the objective. Every specific form in nature 
is itself a duality of matter and force, of body and soul. 
Every perfect unity is therefore a harmonious duality. 
Every evolution on the outer plane corresponds to an in- 
volution on the inner plane. In every organic living form 
consciousness is the central fact, toward and from which in- 
volution and evolution proceed. The adjustment of these 
two processes with consciousness constitutes individual ex- 
perience. The principle of life and the laws of development 
are the same in all organic forms. Development is, however 

(Si) 



82 A Study of Man. 

by concrete degrees and progressively from plane to plane 
oi being. Each higher plane reveals completer form, the 
elements of which are derived from the lower plane as to 
function and structure, and from the plane next higher as 
to type and essence; the former are evolved, the latter in- 
volved. Over against the inheritance from below there is 
always the inspiration from above. Thus is cosmos evolved 
out of chaos. Thus does spirit brood over matter. Thus are 
wrought ideal forms out of earthly shapes. There is differ- 
entiation from below upward, assimilation from above down- 
ward, with consciousness emerging into self-consciousness 
and finally into divine consciousness in the archetypal man 
through experience. That which justifies all these conclu- 
sions is the law of analogy, proceeding from the facts of ex- 
perience and observation. Nothing comes by chance; na- 
ture builds by law through pure mathematics. Grant for 
once that nature is at cross-purposes with herself, that for a 
single moment she forgets her modulus, and creation ceases 
and confusion reigns. Beyond the plane of animal life the 
archetype must be a co-worker with the Creator. He is to 
put away childish things. This is the condition of life on 
the human-divine plane. On the animal-human plane he is 
taught by suffering; on the higher plane he suffers that he 
may teach. Thus man may discern his nature and read his 
destiny from the experiences of his own soul. He may 
barter his birthright or claim his inheritance as he wills. 
Let him cease his inhumanity and his divinity will draw 
nigh. He can not serve two masters. The weary or the be- 
wildered soul may take refuge in a creed, and rest like a 
fossil imbedded in a rock, unmindful of the ceaseless gene- 
rations of life that go throbbing by. The stream never 
ceases. The sun still shines, and the earth is green, though 
the fossil senses it not. We may close our eyes to the light 
and call it darkness, but the great rolling orb of day never 
ceases to shine. The darkness only is ours, while the sun 



Living forms. 83 

sheds his light on all. Man, know thyself ! for thou art the 
epitome of all. 

"Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies; 
Hold you here, root and all in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God, and man is." 

The simple matter of life, protoplasm, assumes various 
forms in morphological processes, thus constituting the ani- 
mal tissues. There is great similarity in the tissues of all 
animals ; those of the lower animals are coarser than in man, 
and the organs that these tissues compose are often very 
rudimentary as compared with the same organs in man, 
while in some of the lower forms of life the development is 
finer and more exquisite than in man. Differentiation, as a 
mere process of complexity, by no means explains the whole 
of development. It may prove profitable to consider further 
the process of differentiation in order to determine what it 
does and what it does not accomplish. 

The human embryo in the course of its development 
passes through the various forms which in lower organisms 
are relatively fixed types. It is in turn mollusk, fish, reptile, 
bird, and mammal, before it assumes the distinctly human 
form. The human therefore includes all lower forms of life. 
In the definition previously given it may readily be seen that 
an organism is something more than a body having organs. 
Indeed, some of the lowest organisms, like the amoeba, are 
entirely destitute of organs, and yet these simple structures 
perform all the so-called organic functions, namely, those 
necessary for the maintenance of organic life. They must 
breathe without lungs, digest without stomachs; circulation 
is accomplished without heart or blood-vessels, and repro- 
duction without organs of sex. These various functions are 
performed by the same structure and at the same tima. 



84 A Study of Alan. 

Respiration consists simply in the exchange of oxygen for 
carbon dioxide. Digestion consists in the assimilation of 
food to the likeness of the living structure. Circulation con- 
sists in the concentric and eccentric waves to and from the 
center, and so on. All these functions are performed simul- 
taneously, thus constituting that condition called community 
of function, namely, one and the same portion of matter en- 
gaged at the same time in the performance of many func- 
tions, as distinguished from that condition where several 
organs acting harmoniously perform as many separate func- 
tions. Herein may be seen the contrast between community 
of function and widely differentiated function. Whenever 
in the development of an organism a portion of the growing 
structure is set apart for the performance of a separate func- 
tion, the balance of the structure is thereby relieved from 
performing that function. Each repetition of the functional 
act further develops the organ, and further relieves the bal- 
ance of the structure from the necessity of performing the 
act as a whole. Exercise of a function develops the organ 
that performs it at first in a rudimentary manner, till by 
continued repetition the organ is perfected in structure and 
function. In the meantime this process of differentiation in 
regard to any one function induces differentiation in rela- 
tion to others on account of the twofold process of involu- 
tion and evolution on which all differentiation and develop- 
ment depend, and on account of the constant tension toward 
equilibrium. Differentiation begets further differentiation, 
not only in parts but in the whole. We never find in a 
healthy individual one organ rudimentary and others well 
developed. That would constitute an aborted development. 
The lungs in man, for example, a complicated structure, are 
not necessarily so on account of the function they have to 
perform per sc, but on account of the general complexity 
of the organism of which they are a part, and in order to 
maintain the equilibrium of differentiation. The twofold 
process then, that is, the perfection of the individual organ 



Living Forms. 85 

and function, and relief of the organism as a whole, pushes 
the development forward; the whole process runs from com- 
munity of function to specialization of function. A still fur- 
ther principle is involved. As development from lower to 
higher forms goes on, and as assignment of territory of the 
growing organism is made to the various organs, till all 
organic functions are provided for, co-ordinate centers are 
established to preside over the various functions and the or- 
gans that represent them. These centers preserve equilib- 
rium and harmony between the different parts and between 
the organism and its environment, and are directly related 
to the unfolding of consciousness through experience. Thus 
there arises a second group of differentiations, namely, 
those occurring between the co-ordinating centers and con- 
sciousness. The first group pertains to organic functions ; 
the second to sensory-motor and consciousness. The first 
group is directly involved in the maintenance of individual 
life. The second group is indirectly so involved, and is di- 
rectly involved in sensory and intellectual life. The result 
in the developing structure is that, as the organic functions 
are provided for, a portion of tissue may be regarded as left 
ov?r, and not involved in the direct maintenance of the life 
of the structure. The amount of matter and energy thus ac- 
cruing represents the cerebral lobes, and the size and de- 
velopment of these determine the plane of life, or degree 
of development in each individual. These cerebral lobes in 
the lower animals are the seat and center of consciousness, 
and they are thus determined by the range of individual ex- 
perience, differentiation within, and modified environment. 
Whenever development passes from lower to higher types, 
culminating on the human plane, the function of co-ordi- 
nation moves .one degree higher. The lower animal is con- 
scious of separate sensations and of individual experiences. 
The co-ordination of these constitutes self-consciousness. 
The difference between simple consciousness and self-con- 
sciousness is this: in the lower animal, the equilibrium is 



86 A Study of Man. 

established between two groups, namely, the organic func- 
tions and the sensory-motor functions. In man a third group 
is added and co-ordinated, namely, the intellectual and reas- 
oning faculties, constituting thus a triad. This last group 
is rudimentary in animals, and therefore differentiation is 
below the point where equilibrium can come in. Co-ordina- 
tion implies equal terms, uniform complexity at all points. 
Thus consciousness expanded from higher to higher planes 
at last reaches the plane of self-consciousness. There is the 
same difference here between plants and animals as between 
the . lower animals and man. Sensation is developed in 
plants, while consciousness is rudimentary. Sensation and 
consciousness are developed in the lower animals, while 
self-consciousness is rudimentary. Sensation, consciousness, 
and self-consciousness are developed in man while divine- 
consciousness is still rudimentary. Now this whole process 
from beginning to end is a differentiation, but, as previously 
stated, it involves something more than progressive differ- 
ence of structure and function. It includes the addition of 
new elements, the assumption of higher offices, the exercise 
of higher and higher powers. Progression on original lines 
by no means includes the process or the results. Mere 
facility gained by repetition, and complexity by differentia- 
tion, can never explain that upward pushing of all life 
toward higher planes of being. Without some other factor 
differentiation would be as likely to proceed downward as 
upward. 

Simple living substance, protoplasm, is composed of oxy- 
gen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, with sulphur and phos- 
phorus occurring incidentally. The comparatively uniform 
chemical composition of protoplasm, and the fact that it is 
continually derived from non-living matter, and the further 
fact that the matter of life of one organism is convertible 
into the matter of life of another organism, have led to the 
conclusion that the life of the earth in all its varied forms 
is one in kind, though widely differing in degree, and in 



Living Forms. 87 

range of manifestation. There is a life-tendency, an un- 
derlying Potency, diffused throughout all matter, though 
the conditions of its manifestations are found only in organ- 
isms, and these arise only from germs; these only give rise 
to protoplasm, converting it to life from the non-living form. 
So far as the mere fact of life is concerned, organisms pro- 
duce germs and produce protoplasm, and these again give 
rise to and maintain organisms. Strictly speaking, the only 
really living substance in organisms is the protoplasm, and 
while this substance is endowed with life it has no definite 
form of its own. It stands thus at the apex of endowment 
with life where the ascent from non-living matter ends and 
the descent toward dead matter begins. All other matter of 
the body is either becoming alive or becoming dead. This 
has become alive, and so remains alive till the process of 
differentiation begins that converts it into tissue. It is 
slowly assimilated, and slowly dies. It differs from the 
amceba principally in having no individual life of its own 
apart from the organism which produced it. If it already 
had form and individuality of its own it could not take on 
the form of the various bodily tissues ; it would not be Pro- 
teus. It is formless, and hence reflects any image, and takes 
on any form. We have thus considered the terms and out- 
lined the process of growth and development from the phys- 
ical side of the equation. These processes are concerned in 
the evolution of every living body, but they do not deter- 
mine the ideal form, or type. This, it is true, is worked out 
on the physical plane, but it is involved before it can be 
evolved, or rather, evolution and involution proceed coinci- 
dently and simultaneously. Over against this whole process 
that segregates and differentiates, there is another that ag- 
gregates and unifies. The first process concerns the world 
of matter and force, and deals with atoms, molecules, and 
the like. The second process concerns the world of power 
and essential forms, and deals with unparticled substance. 
From this subjective world are derived the idea and essen- 



88 A Study of Man. 

tial form, and this is involved, or worked into the growing 
germ, and the developing individual life. To put the prob- 
lem in still plainer form and simpler terms, looking at the 
numberless forms of animal life on the globe as embodi- 
ments of the one life in varying degrees of unfolding, we 
inquire, what is the principle of form and quality, what the 
idea upon which nature builds, what is she trying to accom- 
plish? We answer, all forms of life below the mammal are 
fragments of the human; while all mammals are human in a 
rudimentary form ; hence all animal life is either fragmen- 
tary or rudimentary human. If now we consider man as the 
highest on the list of animal existences, and consider the fact 
that with a relatively uniform physical shape there is ob- 
served a very wide range in the degree of development in 
the human species, and if we also consider the fact that the 
most highly developed human beings known to us are still 
imperfect and therefore destined to still higher develop- 
ment, we shall at last arrive at the idea of a far more 
divinely-human form of life than any now known to us. 

There are two general classes of conditions concerned 
in the growth and development of individual life. These 
may be designated as conditions of inheritance, and condi- 
tions of environment. There is, howe\er, no quality de- 
rived by heredity that is definite and lasting. Whether the 
inherited tendency be good or bad it is a lingering element 
of a previous personality, and hence a trammel to the indi- 
vidual who in the midst of adverse currents is destined to 
stem the tide of all such trammels, and adjust his own ex- 
periences to his own self-consciousness. In other words, 
all inherited bias that predetermines individual character be- 
longs to the receding wave flowing backward toward the 
dawn of consciousness. The whole tendency of individual 
development is to shake off trammels and stand alone, being 
thus free to push onward toward the grand ideal. No such 
vis a tergo as inherited bias can account for intellectual 
strength or spiritual growth. These are due to the vis a 



Living Forms. 89 

fronte that leads man upward and onward. They are not 
and cannot be trammels derived from previous personalities, 
but are rather broader liberties derived from the universal 
ideal, and they are apprehended with greater clearness and 
entered upon with more certainty as the individual experi- 
ence gains breadth and depth. In other words, the lower 
forms of life do not contain the ideal perfect form; if they 
did they would at once and inevitably express it. On the 
other hand, the unfolding of more perfect forms cannot be 
imagined as continually approaching an ideal that has al- 
ready no existence. The ideal is not evolved from below, 
where it has no existence, but involved from above, where 
it eternally abides. Hence all heredity, strictly so-called, be- 
longs to the earthly and animal elements, and contains the 
agencies of its own destruction. All heredity is personal 
Mas. Individuality consists essentially in getting rid of bias, 
and advancing from the personal toward the universal. If, 
then, in his advancement toward the ideal form, man must 
cast off his heredity, so must he also conquer his environ- 
ment. In no respect does man show in a greater degree his 
superiority to the animal life below him than in his ability 
to conquer, change, or ignore the conditions of his environ- 
ment. Man readily adapts himself to changes of climate, 
food and occupation that usually destroy animal life and 
blot out entire species of lower forms. The survival of the 
fittest is not so much to be regarded as a preservation of the 
less imperfect, as a leading upward directly toward the more 
perfect. It makes a great difference which way we face in 
observing these survivals ; whether toward the ideal end, or 
toward the crude beginning. If in what we call heredity 
the good only were transmitted, and if in environment larger 
liberty and broader experience invariably tended toward 
higher life, then indeed would heredity and environment 
prove all-sufficient so far as material conditions go. But 
•the evil tendency is inherited as well as the good; vice is 
as easily transmitted as virtue ; and larger opportunity 



go A Study of Man. 

through improved environment often means only greater 
wickedness. Heredity and environment are thus incidental 
in the life of man, rather than basic principles necessarily 
determining his upward progress toward a high ideal. The 
personal ego is determined by bias derived from both hered- 
, iiy and environment. The ideal form of the personal is 
egotism; its expression is selfishness. The ideal form of the 
individual is altruism ; its expression is charity. The per- 
sonal is mortal. The individual is eternal. The personal is 
evolved from below; it recedes and disappears. The indi- 
vidual is involved from above ; it advances and endures. The 
lower self is an evanescent animal, rudimentary,' temporal. 
The higher self is a universal ideal, a perfect individual. 

Passing now from the consideration of broad generaliza- 
tions to more specific applications, we have to deal with the 
tissue cell, the ovum, seed, or germ, and the colloid. The 
colloid is the protoplasmic form, relatively homogeneous, 
structureless, and as we have elsewhere seen, is the matrix 
out of which all living forms arise. The tissue cell is a more 
or less perfect type of the original germ; it has, however, 
no separate life of its own, but is an integral part of a liv- 
ing body. Coming now to the most important of these pri- 
mary forms, the germ, the vivified ovum, we find it passing 
through the various degrees of sentient life and vital activ- 
ity. The germ consists of an outer physical body and an 
inner nucleated .body. When vivified, the latent life is con- 
verted into the active form. Impregnation is an over-shad- 
owing; a magnetic picture is impressed upon the sensitive 
prcteus, and it begins at once to be involved as the germ 
evolves en the physical plane. As development goes on, a 
distinct nucleus appears in the midst of fluidic cell contents, 
and a cell wall or membrane forms around the whole. The 
nucleus divides first into two and afterwards into four parts, 
or nuclei. The form of the first nucleus is that of an oval 
disc. From the first two of these discs are evolved the or- 
gans of animal life, the senso-motor tract, the skin and the 



Living Forms. 91 

like. From the last two are evolved the organs of vegetation 
or organic life, digestion, reproduction and the like. These 
discs form in the course of development two leaves, and sub- 
sequently four, known as the developing membranes. These 
membranous layers form at length a tube, or rather a four- 
layered tube. The tube forms a hood-shaped structure, and 
again develops discs to run through a somewhat similar proc- 
ess, and finally the developing germ reaches an embryonic 
form. The whole of the early stage of development before 
the distinctly embryonic form is reached consists in a mul- 
tiplication of the essentials of the original nucleus. Each of 
the several discs, or nuclei, becomes a separate center of de- 
velopment, till at last they all unite under one definite form, 
the embryonic. The principle of polarity determined the first 
cleavage of the yelk, and the same principle also determined 
all subsequent subdivisions, and finally produced the embry- 
onic form with its polar extremities and rudimentary or- 
gans. The process thus far is a differentiation, but there is 
from the first a limiting and form-producing power at work. 
The endogenous process of cell formation resulting in the 
mulberry mass is curtailed, otherwise it would go on indefi- 
nitely. That which thus limits the evolution in the line of 
simple differentiation is the involution which meets it at 
every step. Over against the segregating process above re- 
ferred to is an aggregating process which hedges it about 
and keeps it in strict conformity to the species to which the 
germ belongs. Whence arises this limiting, form-producing 
tendency? It comes coincident with the evolutionary tend- 
ency; both result directly from fertilization; they are the 
two poles oi the life endowment, and both together constitute 
the quality and the form of life. The original nucleus is the 
center of the germ. The first two discs are negative to the 
original nucleus. In turn they become the parents, or are 
positive to the second two formed. By following the process 
of further development this fact becomes apparent, as from 
the first two discs are developed the organs of animal life, 



92 A Study of Man. 

the brain, nervous system and the like. These maintain 
their polar supremacy, and continue as the center from which 
radiate all future processes of co-ordination, and toward 
which concentrate all senso-motor impressions. They are 
the spiritual end of the polarized arc, and finally merge inro 
the cerebral lobes, gravitating toward the positive pole or 
head of the embryo, while the matter or negative extremity 
gravitates to the feet. This process is repeated with the 
whole of the twenty-two discs formed from the first cleav- 
age of the yelk, each group existing in subordinate degree to 
the primary; and so also with the four tubes till the strictly 
embryonic form is reached. From this time the development 
within keeps pace with the growth from without, equilib- 
rium or complete adjustment being the result of coincident 
evolution of structure and involution of form. The fact of 
consciousness is coincident with the dawn of individual life, 
and arises from fertilization which localizes consciousness 
in the same act that establishes polarity and transmits crea- 
tive energy to the germ. Impregnation therefore locates a 
center of life in the germ, and defining the relations of cen- 
ter to surface sets in motion a series of similar acts which 
finally give rise to the embryo. It is important to note that 
the initial point in all these complex changes is the nucleus. 
These changes begin at the center, and are for some time in- 
visible from without. In the case of birds, and in many 
other forms, as in the case of the development of the chicken 
from the egg, the process is wholly endogenous, showing that 
the essential form is impressed on the egg coincident with 
fertilization. The genesis of cells and the formation of tis- 
sue begins, as in the case with the embryo, with the nucleus. 
This process consists in the cleavage of the yelk or segmen- 
tation of the nucleus. This division is symmetrical, dividing 
the nucleus into two equal parts. These parts are not only 
of equal size, but of similar contour and of like endowment, 
as they afterward pass through a similar development. If 
we say that the molecules constituting the nucleus are held 



Living Forms. 93 

together by attraction, we must now say they are separated 
by repulsion. But this by no means explains the phenome- 
non, for such a simple repulsion could be imagined as scat- 
tering the molecules in all directions, and this is not what 
takes place. On the other hand, if we regard the molecules 
as polarized, and the ovum as having thereby a positive and 
a negative pole at opposite points on the surface, the act of 
fertilization fixing a center would convert the waves of mo- 
tion flowing hitherto from pole to pole into waves flowing 
from center to surface and from surface to center. As the 
line of the former polarity would offer greatest resistance 
to these eccentric and concentric waves, the ovum would be- 
come elongated by this resistance, and this is just what hap- 
pens. We should next have a bipolar mass in place of the 
former unipolar one. As the hour-glass contraction goes on, 
the nucleus divides, as does the entire cell, so that when 
separated each part consists of half the cell and half the nu- 
cleus, the latter lying as in the original ovum toward one 
side. Let it be borne in mind that we are only analyzing the 
process as it actually occurs, applying the idea of a substra- 
tum of magnetism as a tendency to polarization; in other 
words, we are explaining these processes in terms of polar- 
ity. In embryology, where the process of evolution begins 
.as above described, the nucleus divides into two halves; 
these enlarge, and again each divides as did the original, 
forming four nuclei; and these four constitute the basis of 
all future growth. From this point the process changes, 
and henceforth we have to deal with surfaces, lines, and 
curves, rather than with spheroids and masses. The living 
proteus constituting the original nucleus, and divided as 
above indicated, and upon which were impressed the form 
and impulse in the fertilizing act, has done its work. New- 
protoplasm is now brought in from surrounding parts; the 
orbits pass from ellipses to more direct lines; that is, a 
series of polarities results, subordinate to, but in harmony 
-with one principal polarization of the whole. Neither differ- 



94 A Study of Man. 

entiation nor polarization, however, can account for the 
embryonic form which at last takes on the human shape, nor 
is there any factor in evolution that can explain how these 
arise. We can say in a vague way that the type is trans- 
mitted from parent to progeny, and in a general way that it 
is impressed on the germ in the act of fertilization; but this 
states only a fact, and in no sense enables us to get one step 
nearer its comprehension. All the above considerations re- 
garding the germ belong to the evolution of form and struc- 
ture, but they do not touch the source or origin of that form. 
These processes of segregation, multiplication, differentia- 
tion and polarization are therefore incompetent to explain 
the origin of form, nor do they contain one element that goes 
to show how and whence it originates. We must seek the 
origin of form therefore in some other direction. Bearing 
in mind what has previously been said of the subjective 
plane, as that of essential forms, and of the ether as space 
holding in its broad bosom unparticled substance as well as 
particled matter, bearing also in mind the fact that all things 
belong equally to the two planes, the objective and the sub- 
jective, we shall now discover where we are to look for the 
origin of form. It is mirrored on the magneto-etheric basis 
of the molecular germ, and is progressively involved toward 
the center, from whence it is evolved toward the surface. 
It therefore circumscribes and directs the differentiation 
going on. Fertilization therefore is a double process and in- 
cludes these various factors, both objective and subjective, 
and as on the objective plane are found every degree of em- 
bodiment and every conceivable shape, so on the subjective 
plane must exist every conceivable essential form. Co-ordi- 
nation of the conditions of these at a given point, in an in- 
stant of time through laws of rhythm, constitutes the act of 
fertilization, and therefore determines form. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PLANES OF LIFE. 



We sometimes hear it stated that magnetism is life. 
Such a statement, however, is vague and indefinite, and 
therefore of no practical value. If it be true, as we have en- 
deavored to show, that magnetism subtends all matter, and 
manifests its presence as the polarizing tendency, seen alike 
in the formation of crystals and the vital manifestation of 
organisms, it may then be said to establish the basic condi- 
tions on which the bringing forth of living forms depends. 
Magnetism determines the conditions of duality and 
lies at the foundation of all living forms. The 
life principle may be said to pervade all matter, ready 
to spring forth at any and all points whenever the necessary 
conditions are established. We have shown this springing 
forth as proceeding from a germ, and as depending on the 
process of fertilization. The latent magnetism then begins 
its work by polarizing the mass. Then differentiation be- 
gins by virtue of the ebb and flow established between the 
subjective and objective planes. The form is involved and 
the structure evolved, with the germ center of living matter 
as a nidus for these processes. Matter has been shown to 
manifest life in two conditions, namely, with and without 
definite form. The first condition is seen in protoplasm, the 
second in germs and resulting organism, and these two forms 
have already been shown as inseparable. Germs and organ- 
isms therefore involve all known manifestations of life, and 
while the essence of life still eludes us, the conditions of its 
manifestations, when accurately defined, are a very great as- 

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96 A Study of Man. 

sistance toward the comprehension of all vital problems. 
The word life conveys no very definite meaning to most per- 
sons, as it would seem to convey the idea of an antithesis 
to death and nothing more. If, however, one digs deep into 
the conditions and manifestations of the living and the non- 
living, he will discover that they approach each other by 
imperceptible degrees, and at last he will find that they are 
separated by no fast lines, but merge into each other, and 
that in the larger aspects creation exists as an equation be- 
tween the non-living and the living, and they continually 
changing places. 

Aside from the cosmic duality represented by the subjec- 
tive and the objective planes, the manifestation of life oc- 
curs on successive planes from lowest to highest forms. 
From the little zoophyte two planes diverge. Every con- 
ceivable form of plant life gives beauty and diversity to the 
earth on the one hand, and every imaginable animal form 
gives expression to sentient life on the other. This first 
separation into planes occurs at the base of each plane, 
where are seen the simplest manifestations of life. The 
next plane springs from the apex of the animal series, where, 
by almost imperceptible degrees, the grosser animal quali- 
ties recede and the lowest human attributes begin to appear. 
All efforts to establish the point of divergence by direct 
parentage have signally failed, and are still likely to fail, so 
long as the whole process of the unfolding of living forms 
is studied from the evolution side only. The solution of 
this problem awaits the knowledge of the nature and sequel 
of that which we call death, or of that which occurs on the 
subjective plane. For this investigation man must bring to 
bear faculties which as a rule he now possesses only in a 
rudimentary form. We have thus the plane of plant-life, 
the plane of animal life in the lower forms, and the plane of 
human life. While as a whole, and in their larger aspects, 
these several planes seem wide apart; as already shown, 
they approach and finally merge the one into the other, not 



Planes of Life. 97 

by direct derivation, but by the common diffusion of the life 
principle and related terms of life substance. In the pro- 
gressive evolution of structure the lower organisms are 
prophetic of the higher, while in the specific involution of 
higher and still higher forms the human inherits from all 
below. This plane overshadows the lower forms with its 
own likeness, and is itself prophetic of a diviner form which 
overshadows it. This principle has previously been pointed 
out, but it will bear frequent repetition, for if all embodiment 
of life inevitably tends toward a divine ideal, it is the most 
important fact within the comprehension of man. The 
planes of existence to which man is definitely related are 
thus the following: the physical, the vegetable, the animal, 
the human, and the divine. Aside from the general relation 
existing between these planes, individual man derives his 
body and his powers from these planes by more or less direct 
inheritance, and manifests characteristics belonging to ail of 
them. He possesses a physical body, has vegetative, or 
purely organic functions, manifests animal instincts and at- 
tributes, shows human qualities, and reveals diviner possi- 
bilities. Every human personality is a composite body made 
up by various degrees of all lower life. He reveals his deri- 
vation in the shape of his head, in the contour of his face, 
in the outlines and pose of his body, and in all his instincts, 
appetites, passions and feelings. Not only so, but there is 
in every person a tendency to predominance of derivation, 
first from one of the above planes, and second a specific ani- 
mal type is manifested in disposition and facial expression. 
A careful study of physiognomy will reveal this last-named 
resemblance. The resemblance of certain human faces to 
animals is often very marked. It would seem as though all 
lower planes of life, and every animal, had been precipitated 
in the vital alembic from which man is created. Herein may 
be seen the intimate relation that man bears -to all surround- 
ing life. Possessing their forms and qualities, he stands as 
their complete embodiment and representative. The value 



98 A Study of Man. 

and meaning of man's human birthright make him lord over 
all life beneath him, while as already pointed out in a pre- 
vious section, self-consciousness carries the lines of his in- 
heritance to the plane above him, and enables him to reach 
forward to a higher than the human plane. Individuals 
might easily be selected representative of types of the phys- 
ical, the vegetable, the lower animal, and the human plane. 
That is to say, in the midst of a mixed inheritance from all 
planes, one or another plane would seem to predominate. It 
is also very instructive to study man from this point of view, 
as well as from that of animal physiognomy. There are per- 
sons who are mere physical bulks, who merely exist, and 
where all other potencies are subsidiary to the mere phys- 
ical. There are again others who vegetate, and wherein the 
organic functions predominate. Neither of these types have 
any decided moral tone; they are neither good nor bad in 
any marked degree. They have no zest in life beyond its 
bare preservation. They are listless, impotent imbeciles. 
There are again personalities in whom the animal predomi- 
nates. As types they are above the two already named ; they 
not only outnumber the former types, but have in all ages 
known to history constituted the majority of mankind. The 
principle they have involved is animal egotism. Self is su- 
preme. They lack neither zest in life nor moral tone, thougli 
the moral qualities have not a necessary innate coloring. In 
the supremacy of their self-seeking they are rather indiffer- 
ent than hostile to others. They have seldom reached the 
point when they love evil and create suffering for pure love 
of evil. They perform evil acts for their own imagined 
good. Such but represent the human animalized. They do 
not crowd alone the gutters and dark alleys, and parade in 
filth and rags, in ignorance and legal crime, but they are 
seen as oft in public marts, in the halls of trade, in the ball- 
room and in so-called "polite society." Whenever and 
wherever man lives in his appetites, and is ruled by his pas- 
sions, wherever he is willing that another should lose in 



Planes of Life. 99 

order that he may gain, at all times and everywhere that 
egotism triumphs over altruism is man under animal rule 
and living on the animal plane. The animal in rags takes 
a purse, steals a chicken, or breaks into a house, and revels 
in rot and rum, herding with his own degree of the opposite 
sex. The animal in broadcloth and fine linen steals a rail- 
road, breaks a bank, or steals legally, and rides in his car- 
riage. He sips the choicest wines, and, to indulge his appe- 
tites and passions, leads to ruin, desolation, despair, and 
finally to suicide every unsuspecting girl upon whom he can 
place his unholy hands. Who dare say that the animal does 
not predominate in all these ? What tiger or hyena destroys 
like one of these ? The more subtle and concealed the form 
of animalism the more dangerous it is to society. Every 
human semblance is made to conceal vice and do duty as 
almoner to crime, and every garb of respectability is used 
in the masquerade of lust and animal appetite. The crim- 
inal in the dock is never half so dangerous to society as the 
"respectable gentleman" who feeds his lusty soul upon un- 
suspecting virgins. Whenever really humane men and 
women will agree to call things by their right names, and 
when they shall agree to distinguish no longer between the 
animal in rags and the animal in fashionable dress, then will 
the animal plane in human affairs begin to be depopulated. 
If the foregoing reflections shall seem to anyone out of place, 
let me remind him that there is a strictly physiological basis 
to every moral principle ; that things can be ethically true 
in human nature and human life only as they are organically 
true. The organic underlies all human processes, so must 
the ethical and the moral logically crown our highest deduc- 
tion. If nature everywhere builds toward higher forms and 
unfolds toward a diviner ideal, every honest endeavor intelli- 
gently put forth to comprehend nature must show a like 
tendency. It is therefore competent for everyone to in- 
quire to what plane his life is anchored, for he may weigh 
anchor at will and move to higher levels, but he will have 

LofC. 



loo A Study of Man. 

to tear himself away from true siren passions to taste the 
ambrosia of the immortal islands. 

Passing now from the animal plane to the next higher,- 
we come .to the human. The human is essentially the hu- 
mane, and while this plane has its root in the plane of ani- 
mal life, and derives its substance from a still lower 
plane, its human characteristics are only revealed as the 
animal attributes recede. The animal man is a talking ani- 
mal, while the humane man is a loving, reasoning soul. It 
is quite evident that human beings may exist on a very low 
plane, or very near the border that divides the human from 
the animal, and this even in the midst of a high civilization. 
It is also evident that from a comparatively high level one 
may descend to this low plane, and dissipate there the forces 
that were formerly used on higher planes. To give our sub- 
ject a still more practical bearing, we may consider the fact 
that the amount of energy possessed by an individual is as 
definite as the actual weight of the body at any given time. 
This energy is derived from the same source as the matter 
of which the body is composed, namely, the food. A certain 
amount of this energy is required to maintain the body and 
keep it in repair. Whenever this reserve energy is being 
drawn upon there comes the sense of fatigue as a reminder 
that it should be pushed no further. The entire body more 
or less participates in all these results. A reasonable amount 
of exercise, either of local organs or of the entire body, pro- 
motes health and development. A change in the mode of ex- 
ercise, or from one sphere to another, is followed by a sense 
of rest, as, for example, when walking follows severe mental 
labor. Habitual exercise of one organ, to the exclusion of 
general bodily exercise, develops that organ out of all pro- 
portion to the rest of the body, and thus in time lays the 
foundation of disease by permanently destroying the bodily 
equilibrium. Great muscular development by gymnastic ex- 
ercise is, therefore, more often an element of weakness than 
of strength, and may lead to disease rather than to health.. 



Planes of Life. 101 

All functional exercise of an organ, whether in moderation 
or in excess, whether singly or in combination with other 
organs, exhausts the bodily vitality, and draws on the gen- 
eral fund of life. As a general proposition an organ de- 
velops in size and increases in power by exercise, but when- 
ever this development transcends the law of proportion for- 
the individual it becomes an element of weakness, as it mars 
the efficiency of the whole. Ideal development therefore 
concerns just proportion in every part, and whether this be 
ignored through lack of energy, or transcended by overwork 
in any given direction, the result is practically the same. 
In the case of an individual capable of lifting five hundred 
pounds as the limit of his muscular development, this repre- 
sents the sum of his energy in any other direction, provided 
he has a healthy and well developed frame. The individual 
may lift this amount twice, possibly three times, at any given 
trial, and the next attempt will prove a failure. Now the 
point we wish to illustrate is this: these five hundred pounds 
of energy which are available to the individual may be di- 
vided between the different planes of the individual's life. 
They may be used in physical exercise, in sensuous enjoy- 
ment, in intellectual work, or in debauchery; or the whole 
amount of energy may be divided equally or unequally among 
the different organs of the body. As a matter of fact, this 
division is just what every person accomplishes, consciously 
and designedly, or otherwise. We might go further, and 
show that the amount of energy possessed by any individual 
in a lifetime is also a definite and predetermined quantity, 
and that the method of its employment and the quality of 
work achieved are relatively only under the individual's con- 
trol. There is a natural order established by nature in the 
expenditure of energy which leaves it only partially under 
the control of the individual. First, nature at all times re- 
serves a definite amount for the maintenance of the bodily 
functions and for natural wear and tear. Second, during 
early life the continual growth of the body demands both 



102 A Study of Man. 

matter and force, and the great activity of children and 
young people naturally draws heavily on the vital fount. 
When, however, adult life arrives, caprice or accident often 
determines the method of the dissipation of energy, if, in- 
deed, there is any method, and so predominance is given to 
the physical, the animal, or the human attributes, and the 
entire stock of energy is thus dissipated, day after day and 
year after year. According to the evident design of nature 
it is as natural that the intellectual and spiritual faculties 
should predominate in later life as that the physical and 
purely sensuous should have the ascendency in youth. There 
are, however, few natural lives, and hence old age is often 
deformed, if not also degraded. There is no more valuable 
thing possessed by any individual than an exalted ideal, 
toward which he continually aspires, and after which he 
molds his thoughts and feelings, and forms as best he may 
his life. If he thus strives to become, rather than to seem, 
he cannot fail to continually approach nearer and nearer 
his aim. He will thus find himself above the mere physical, 
animal, and sensuous planes, and slowly entering on the 
supra-human. He will not, however, reach this point with- 
out a struggle, nor will the real progress that he is conscious 
of making fill him with conceit or self-righteousness, for if 
his ideal be high, and his progress toward it real, he will be 
the rather humiliated than puffed up. The possibilities of 
further advancement, and the conception of still higher 
planes of being that open before him, will not dampen b.is 
ardor, though they will surely kill his conceit. It is just 
this conception of the vast possibilities of human life that 
is needed to kill out ennui, and to convert apathy into zest. 
Life thus becomes worth living for its own sake when its 
mission becomes plain, and its splendid opportunities are 
once appreciated. The most direct and certain way of reach- 
ing this higher plane is the cultivation of the principle of 
altruism, both in thought and in life. Narrow indeed is the 
sweep of vision that is limited to self, and that measures 



Planes of Life. 103 

all things by the principle of self-interest, for while the soul 
is thus self-limited it is impossible for it to conceive of any- 
high ideal or to approach any higher plane of life. The con- 
ditions for such advancement lie within, rather than without, 
and are fortunately made independent of circumstance and 
condition in life. The opportunity, therefore, is offered to 
everyone of advancing from height to height of being, and 
of thus working with nature in the accomplishment of the 
evident purpose of life. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HUMAN LIFE. 

In the preceding pages have been considered some of 
those general principles to which we must continually ap- 
peal in any well-directed attempt to understand the nature 
of man. It is impossible to study man apart from that uni- 
versal nature in which he is involved and upon which he so 
continually depends. In common with all nature the body 
of man is composed of matter and force ; therefore an out- 
line of physics seemed necessary in order that all known re- 
lations in the physical realm might contribute to an under- 
standing of those more refined conditions that constitute 
vital manifestations. Certain general principles of biology 
and morphology have also been introduced for a like pur- 
pose, though in neither case has more than a mere outline 
been attempted, sufficient to show the line of study sug- 
gested. The scope of the present work is suggestive, rather 
than in any sense or in any direction exhaustive. The aim 
of its author is to suggest better methods in the employment 
of the large amount of material already on hand, although 
the methods suggested are by no means new or original, and 
he is firm in the belief that this change in our methods is all 
that is required to give more satisfactory results. The ob- 
ject has, however, been rather to unfold than to apply these 
methods up to the present time. To make a detailed appli- 
cation of the basic principles of the underlying ether, the 
diffused magnetic substance, and the resulting principle of 
polarity, would require far more space than this entire work 
contemplates. Beyond the facts of science and the records 

(104) 



Human Life. 105 

of universal experience the logical deductions of analogy 
alone have aided us. The universality of these principles is 
at once the plainest and the most valuable deduction pos- 
sible; for it at once simplifies our subject, amplifies our 
knowledge, and intensifies our interest. When it has once 
been discovered that many problems hitherto almost hope- 
lessly obscured, and -which have been regarded as impossible 
of solution, are easy of solution by a different procedure than 
that generally employed, order springs out of disorder, and 
discouragement gives place to interest and delight. Assum- 
ing only the fact of consciousness, a true knowledge of its 
relations to the phenomena of life on the one hand, and to 
the processes of thought and intuition .on the other, gives us 
a working hypothesis where otherwise no solution of the 
problem of existence would be possible. In the ordinary 
method employed in such studies it is practically assumed 
that man is neither more nor less than a highly developed 
animal, as he is viewed solely from the physico-vital plane. 
If it be assumed that man has a soul, the burden of proof is 
shifted to the physical side as though visible forms and phys- 
ical methods could prove the existence of an invisible en- 
tity. In other words, modern science denies a soul to man, 
and challenges proof of its existence in terms of matter, 
force and motion apprehensible to the physical senses, for- 
getting that the physical senses constitute but one side of 
man's nature as viewed from the center, consciousness. It 
would be quite as logical, and far more rational, to proceed 
on the opposite hypothesis, assuming that man has a soul, 
and requiring physical science to disprove it, particularly as 
so little real progress has been made in the opposite direc- 
tion. A better science, however, neither affirms nor denies. 
Admitting our utter ignorance of the essential nature of 
anything, it endeavors to apprehend laws and principles, 
and to discover relations. In the discovery of laws we pro- 
ceed from the special to the universal, and we thence dis- 
cover a universe epitomized in a molecule. In order to 



106 A Study of Man. 

rightly determine relations things must be put in their proper 
place, which means that they are to be taken in their natural 
order, very much as we find them. Classification must fol- 
low careful observation; induction and deduction must be 
complementary, and through all there may be discovered a 
thread of analogy giving us a clue to the labyrinth. It is a 
fact in universal experience that the lower nature can never 
comprehend the higher. The animal in man can never com- 
prehend the divine in man. It is equally a matter of uni- 
versal experience that the higher can comprehend the lower. 
When, therefore, from the plane of the animal senses, man 
looks upward toward the divine, he can aspire ; when, how- 
ever, from the plane of the higher reason and intuition, man 
views the planes of life below, he may comprehend them if 
he will. In ordinary life a long experience, extending 
through many vicissitudes, is requisite in order that we may 
know a person. In another case the recognition is quick and 
sure, a glance of the eye, a pressure of the hand, and time 
and change are as naught. The soul recognizes its kin- 
dred by sympathy that is stronger than the ties of blood, 
and more enduring than time. Here is something that tran- 
scends sense-perception ; and though it exists among animals, 
and to some extent among men and women of a low type, 
its real nature and scope can only be appreciated through 
the higher nature of man. To call this sympathy is by no 
means to define it. The most important consideration is that 
the fact reveals in man a method of direct recognition, or 
means of knowing beyond the routine of ordinary experi- 
ence, or of sense-perception, and this direct method of know- 
ing is not confined to the recognition of persons and things, 
but it extends also to principles and laws, and to abstract 
truth. It requires in the knower the elements and the ex- 
periences which compass the principle or thing to be known, 
as on the physical plane we find consonant rhythm produc- 
ing harmony. The recognition of the fact of subjective ex- 
perience, or of the existence of a subjective plane, is not 



Human Life. 107 

sufficient. When once it is apprehended that the cosmic 
duality enters into the life and nature of man, and that man's 
entire life is an equation of which phenomenal nature con- 
stitutes one member only, to which sense-perception is re- 
lated, the problem of life is placed in the way of solution. 
Until this principle is clearly discerned the extent and variety 
of subjective experiences cannot be accurately determined. 
It makes every difference whether subjective experiences 
are. regarded as incidental, and semi-accidental, or whether 
they are discovered to be universal, basic, and commensurate 
with all objective factors in the life of man. Until this 
principle of equations is discerned it will be useless to dis- 
cuss the question of priority in the line of cause and effect, 
as to whether, for example, the soul builds the body, or the 
body the soul. For with the ordinary procedure from the 
physical to the metaphysical the whole investigation proceeds 
from a material basis. The interaction and mutual depend- 
ence of soul and body in the orderly process of daily expe- 
rience is thereby misapprehended, though in general terms 
it may be admitted. That which in platonic language is 
termed the descent of the soul into matter has little meaning 
for the modern scientist, because evolution has set him to 
regard the processes of life purely as an ascent from lower 
to higher forms. The idea of an equation is not apprehended 
wherein evolution is constantly supplemented by involution, 
and where equilibrium is established as the outgrowth of the 
cosmic duality. 

Enough perhaps has now been said to show the meaning 
and the application of the methods referred to in our study 
of man. Man has a twofold nature in common with all 
created things, under the law of cosmic duality. Man's life, 
therefore, exists here and now in two worlds, and he is 
more or less conscious of both. Man is therefore a self- 
conscious soul, inhabiting a physical and mortal body. What 
man was heretofore, and what he may be hereafter, concerns 
us not. What he is now, and what he may here become, are 



108 A Study of Man. 

matters of the very first importance, and by no means be- 
yond his plane of knowing. The mechanical structure of the 
physical body, the substances that enter into the composi- 
tion of its tissues, and the proportions of these substances 
in any given case are now quite accurately known. The 
mechanico-vital functions of the body and its various parts 
are also known to a considerable extent. Modern biological 
science has seized every available opportunity and taken ad- 
vantage of every accident to push its investigations into the 
hitherto unknown realm of human nature. Not only the 
ordinary and constantly recurring functions of the human 
body have been carefully studied, but unusual phenomena 
occurring under special conditions and in exceptional indi- 
viduals have been subjected to careful scrutiny. In this way 
groups of phenomena have been gathered and classified, the 
existence of which were formerly unknown and unsuspected. 
If a given phenomenon occurs in a single individual, and 
but once in a generation, its occurrence is thereby shown to 
be possible to human nature, and it may occur again, or it 
may, if desirable, be induced when once its nature and the 
conditions of its occurrence are understood. It required the 
light of science and free inquiry to enable us to study such 
rare occurrences. Certain hysterical and hypnotic epidemics 
of the middle ages seemed to contemporary physicians alto- 
gether miraculous, and were supposed to be due to diabolical 
possession, which are now readily explained as hypnotic sug- 
gestion. The startling amount of energy displayed by cer- 
tain individuals in these epidemics seemed to indicate super- 
natural power; the poor victims were often delicate women, 
yet they successfully resisted the force of the strongest men. 
Making all due allowance for excitement, superstition, and 
exaggeration, there were beyond all reasonable doubt un- 
usual manifestations and an inexplicable amount of force 
displayed, and both the nature and the force of these exhi- 
bitions were entirely unaccounted for. When, however, we 
•come to understand the real nature of sex, and its relation 



Human Life. 109 

to what is vaguely termed magnetism, the mystery begins to 
disappear. In the case of .the girl Angelique Cottin, pre- 
sented to the French Academy by Mons. Arago, the nature 
and strength of this force was clearly demonstrated. In 
still more recent times there have doubtless been many simi- 
lar occurrences, but they have often been so mixed with 
fraud, and have taken place under such circumstances as to 
render it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to make in- 
vestigation. When to these considerations is added the fact 
that the scientific investigator proceeds from a purely mate- 
rialistic basis, regarding evolution as the one process by 
which development can occur, it may readily be seen how 
inadequate are his methods to cope with such phenomena. 
Scientific conservatism is both necessary and commendable, 
but scientific nihilism is both unwise and unscientific ; it is a 
misnomer. Until the subjective nature of man is recognized 
as co-equal and co-extensive with the objective, and until the 
would-be scientist is ready to discard his prejudices and pre- 
conceived notions, and allow facts to tell their own story, he 
had better leave all such subjects alone; he can but render 
himself ridiculous, and add nothing to the sum of human 
knowledge in these directions. 

These subjects are referred to at this time because the 
day of empiricism is well nigh past and the era of real sci- 
entific investigation has begun. Even fraud and self-decep- 
tion have had their day, and the light of a new day has al- 
ready dawned. At no time since written history began have 
there accumulated such a wealth of material and such un- 
limited freedom to investigation. The discoveries of phys- 
ical science already impinge so closely on the borders of the 
unseen universe as to reveal glimpses beyond the realm of 
the ordinary senses. The veil has grown thin, and here and 
there it has been lifted, separating the external world of 
effects from the internal world of causes. The power of mind 
over matter is everywhere being recognized, and the up- 
lifting of the human race to higher planes has already be- 



no A Study of Man. 

gun. Old riddles are being solved; old traditions are pass- 
ing away. The nemesis of error and of superstition is the 
resurrected genius of truth in the age that is dawning. 

The most senseless and terrible of all superstitions is the 
manner in which man is in the habit of regarding (the begin- 
ning and the end of the present life. Life begins often in 
a tragedy, and is ushered in by wailing anguish. The cham- 
ber of birth is often a chamber of torture, enough to daunt 
the stoutest heart, save oniy the trained physician bent on 
his mission of mercy. And yet the tragedy is soon forgotten 
amid rejoicings and offerings of flowers. Death is peaceful 
and painless, a very foretaste of bliss, as though nature 
sought to reward even the weakest and poorest after the 
lessons in life which she sets us here to learn. Yet we usher 
the soul out of the body with tears and anguish, and drape 
in blackness, and mourn where we should rejoice. For this 
perversion of the ways of nature we are largely indebted to 
the traditions of the dark ages, and to the inherent selfish- 
ness derived from the animal plane of egoism. If we could 
know all the sorrow and suffering that await the new-born 
soul even egotism would fail to make us rejoice in its com- 
ing. If we could know the rest and peace of dying even 
egotism could not make us mourn. In the new day that is 
dawning an infinite pity will possess humanity, and death, 
rather than birth, will have garlands of flowers. No wonder 
that the little one comes out of its prison-house with a wail 
of anguish such as only the agonized mother-heart can un- 
derstand. How terribly is its little life beset with pains and 
dangers, and its early youth with snares and pit-falls ! How 
many grow weary of the struggle, how many fall by the way ! 



"Little lips that never smiled, 
Little eyes that scarce did see! 

Alas! my little, dear, dead child, 

Death was thy father and not me; 
I but embraced thee soon as he." 



Human Life, in 

"O little feet that such long years 

Must journey on through hopes and fears, 

Must ache and bleed beneath your load! 
I, nearer to the way-side inn, 
Where toil shall cease and rest begin, 

Am weary thinking of your load." 

If we could know how we trammel these little ones, how 
we load upon them our sins and infirmities, how we grudge 
them the poor privilege of being born after we have made 
birth a necessity; if we could know how we mould their 
little lives .and pre-determine their destiny, we would at least 
stop and take counsel with ourselves. But a new generation 
of mothers is coming to the world and the children will be 
redeemed through them. In the new day that is dawning 
there will be no little waifs born to disbelief, to rebellion, 
and to crime; no shrinking, terrified little ones, never sure 
of a welcome from the cradle to the grave, hungering for 
love, yet shrinking from it as though every fiber of their 
lonely lives was steeped in distrust and self-abnegation ! 
What but infinite pity can understand the sorrows of child- 
hood ! What but infinite love can reassure these unwelcome 
children ! Physiologists talk learnedly about temperaments, 
constitutions, and pre-dispositions to disease; and sociolo- 
gists talk about pre-disposition to crime ; and philanthropists, 
of reform. Education can never correct the defects of birth, 
nor can restraint or punishment prevent crime, nor reform 
the criminal. Pre-natal conditions have forestalled all these 
and given to many lives a bias that nothing can change, a 
perversity that nothing can materially alter. When once 
this fact is realized, and when it is also realized how all 
these lamentable conditions can be prevented, then will 
earth's humanity be other than it is now. He who attempts 
to study the human, and is ignorant of: this sad chapter in 
the history of human nature, or he who imagines that he 
can ignore it and still arrive at any large truths, will find 



H2 A Study of Man. 

himself mistaken. An adequate knowledge of man takes 
into account all his faculties, and all his surroundings, the 
conditions of birth, of parentage, and of inheritance, as a 
basis upon which to predicate his nature and destiny. These 
are the very elements of a study of human nature, and it is 
because these elements are so largely ignored that such 
unsatisfactory results are generally obtained. Only a bare 
outline of these elements and the method of study herein 
suggested has been attempted, but if these suggestions shall 
prove incentives to more competent investigators the object 
of the writer will have been accomplished. 

The science of anatomy has mapped out the human body 
as a whole and has also given very concise details of its 
various parts, so that a clear and exact description of the 
human mechanism may be obtained. Thus to comprehend 
the human body, however, requires several years of very 
careful study, and to this must be added object-lessons in 
the way of dissections and demonstrations. It is found that 
the apparent unity of the physical body is due to the har- 
monious association of parts, and that this association is on 
the principle of primordial centers, and subordinate relations 
of other parts of these, and to the whole. These various 
parts are again composed of microscopic cells, while the cells 
originate from the simple living substance, protoplasm, the 
differentiation of which into specific shapes constitutes the 
ceil. It may thus be seen that the body is a community of 
vital functions, and that these microscopic centers of life as- 
sociate under definite conditions to produce exact forms. 
From this association arise the vitality of the body as a 
whole, the special functions of the different organs, and the 
tissues of the entire body. The vitality of the entire body 
depends on the integrity of the individual cells and their 
harmonious associations. Disturbance of this integrity and 
harmony arises from innumerable causes operating from 
within and from without. The result in any given case can- 
not be predicted by knowing only the cause of disturbance, 



Human Life. 1:3 

for not only is the result different in different cases, but it 
is seldom the same in any individual at different times. One 
individual may meet with impunity a condition that in an- 
other would destroy life, or which the same individual would 
at another time be unable to bear. One person dies from 
lock-jaw caused by a prick of a pin. Another may be muti- 
lated almost beyond recognition and yet recover speedily and 
suffer no great inconvenience. Every case of injury or of 
disease becomes, therefore, a problem by itself, more or less 
governed by general laws, yet in no case to be pre-determined. 
The vital equation is constantly shifting, and with every 
change a new problem presents itself. This susceptibility of 
the organism to disease and death is the exact complement 
of its adaptability to the conditions of life, to more extended 
experience, and to wider knowledge. It is the uncertainty 
of the tenure of life that fills the minds of men with super- 
stitious fear, and places the masses at the mercy of the 
mountebank. It is a matter of great importance and often 
of very great difficulty to determine when life is really in 
jeopardy; and, as this question presents itself as a some- 
what different problem in every case, only a judgment cul- 
tivated by long study and close observation, and fortified by 
wide experience, can hope to solve it. Even the most culti- 
vated judgment is often at fault, and caution is its 
marked characteristic. Lucky hits, and happy accidents, 
often give to ignorance and conceit the garb of wisdom. 

The science of anatomy teaches that the body is made 
up of organs composed of the living cells already mentioned. 
It is furthermore discovered that certain of these organs 
are of a similar kind, and so the tissues are also classified 
into systems of organs. Hence we have the osseous system 
comprising all the bones of the body; the circulatory system 
comprising all the blood-vessels of the body with the central 
heart; the nervous, the glandular, the muscular, the diges- 
tive, the lymphatic systems, and so on. While each of these 
systems is employed in some special office they have a great 



ii4 ^ Study of Man. 

deal in common. All the tissues are composed of cells, and 
every cell typifies the entire organism. The difference in 
the form of the cells determines the tissue of the various 
organs. 

These various systems are again grouped to form two 
large classes, the organic and the specific. To the organic 
belong those organs and functions that maintain the bodily 
structure. These are digestion, absorption, secretion, respi- 
ration, circulation and the like. To the specific belong the 
motor, the sentient, the intellectual and the like. Each cell, 
each organ, each system contributes something to the good 
of the entire structure, and receives in turn something from 
each and from the whole for the maintenance of its own in- 
tegrity. Health means a perfect adjustment of all these 
parts and of all relations according to the laws of equilib- 
rium and harmony. We cannot conceive of a single micro- 
scopic cell being out of tune without disturbing thereby the 
harmony of the whole. There is moreover something more 
than this harmonious association; there is an inter-penetra- 
tion. The nerves, the blood-vessels and the lymphatics run 
everywhere and penetrate all other tissues. Every micro- 
scopic cell is a station for export and import, receiving nu- 
trient supplies, giving off effete matters. The blood-vessels 
are thus the highways of a mighty commerce, and from them 
is derived the significant expression, "the arteries of trade." 
There is the incoming tide of food, water and oxygen, to 
say nothing of the effects of light, heat and magnetism. 
There is also the receding tide of carbon di-oxide, and worn 
out material; and so nicely is the balance adjusted that, with 
the several hundred pounds of materials annually thus taken 
in and given out, the avoirdupois of the body often remains 
for years the same. Aside from the tissues proper, the more 
permanent structures of the body, there is thus a large 
amount of material constantly in transitu, and health de- 
mands that there shall be no collision between the incoming 
tide of nutrienl material and the outgoing tide of effete mat- 



Human Life. 115 

ter. Indeed, the mechanism and relations are so nicely ad- 
justed that the presence and movements of the one facili- 
tate the progress of the other. The body of man is thus like 
a walled city, with innumerable inhabitants that have dis- 
covered perpetual motion, and that never rest and never 
sleep. This is an old idea, and in mystical writings this city 
is called Jerusalem, Zion, and its nine avenues are called 
"the gates of the great city." 

If we examine the bony skeleton of man separated from 
all other portions of the body we get but an inadequate idea 
of the human form. There are cavities like the cranium, 
thorax and pelvis, mere excavations, with nothing to indi- 
cate their previous contents. There is indeed symmetry in 
contour and an admirable adaptation of parts. The mechan- 
ism of the bones of the hands and feet, and the various 
joints whereby a great variety of motions may be secured, 
is wonderful. The spinal column seems inadequate to sup- 
port the trunk and bear aloft the temple of the soul. little 
idea of its great flexibility in life can be derived from the 
denuded spinal column. The skull, with its smooth contour, 
its grinning teeth and its eyeless sockets so little resembles 
the head in life that it ceases to be a wonder that it stands 
throughout all time as the emblem oif death. If the entire 
bony structure of man were withdrawn from the body only 
a mere pulp, incapable of motion, would remain; the mus- 
cles, useless without fulcrums; the tendons, helpless without 
pulleys. 

If now we undertake to examine the muscular system 
separated from all other parts, we find that it more nearly 
conforms to the bodily outlines in life; but the connections 
are wanting. The support and connecting links furnished by 
the bones, the stimulus of the nerves, the life-giving currents 
of the blood are wanting, and the muscles are incapable of 
the least motion. 

Considering next the circulatory system, and imagining 
it to be withdrawn entire from the body, we find it a com- 



n6 A Study of Man. 

plicated system of tubes running to and from the heart. 
The arteries break up or subdivide into arterioles and capil- 
laries, and these again unite to form the venules and then 
the veins, and so return to the heart. But that wonderful 
force-pump, the heart, will not work. It requires the stimu- 
lus of the nerves to keep it in motion, hence the stream oi 
life is still. The system of blood-vessels shows the contour 
of the body, so finely divided are its capillary branches, 
ramifying through all the tissues, and covering the surface 
of the body so that not a pin's point can find it wanting. In 
withdrawing the blood-vessels and their contents we have 
withdrawn but a fraction of the entire weight of the body, 
yet none of the changes incident to life can go on. 

Turning now to the nervous system, the brain and spinal- 
cord and their appendages, together with the sympathetic 
nervous system, we shall find that its withdrawal from the 
body arrests all rhythmic motion, all co-ordination; sensa- 
tion, feeling and thought are no longer possible. In contour 
the nervous mechanism might remind one of the human 
form, though it would equally resemble an overgrown and 
distorted spider. 

The respiratory mechanism does not seem so extensive 
nor so complicated as the other systems named, unless we 
consider it as part of the circulatory apparatus, which indeed 
it is. Nothing can be more intimate than the relations ex- 
isting between these two mechanisms and their functions. 
The blood and the air meet and mingle in the lungs. Here 
is the great motor of life, mechanical and magnetic. All 
other functions may be arrested or greatly modified and a 
measure of life continue, but if the functions of the circu- 
latory and respiratory systems are disturbed life at once be- 
gins to wane. In all diseases where the individual is liable 
to sudden death these two structures and their all-important 
functions are involved. In all diseases tending directly to 
death these functions are first to give signs of distress. So 
long as the action of the heart and respiration are normal 



Human Life. ny 

life is secure; whenever Death approaches from whatever 
cause, these show the first signs of his coming. 

The glandular system of the human body has very im- 
portant functions to perform. The office of this system is to 
separate substances from the blood and allow time and space 
for both composition and decomposition to occur. The prod- 
ucts thus arising by separation are of two general classes, 
called secretions and excretions, the former of use to the 
system in carrying on its complicated functions, the latter 
not only waste and worthless, but positively injurious to the 
individual as well. In some cases only the form of noxious 
substances is changed and there results a useful secretion. 

Back of all the systems and functions named, yet involv- 
ing them all, is the nutritive system. This may be regarded 
as the basic function of all life. Nutrition involves the 
transformation of other substances into living matter, and 
the maintenance of the integrity of the tissues of the body. 
All processes of growth, development, repair and vitality are 
largely questions of nutrition. If we regard nutrition as the 
basis of: life and the central function to which all others are 
tributary, and yet upon which all depend for their mainte- 
nance and integrity, we shall get an idea of its relation and 
importance. The more direct factors in nutrition are diges- 
tion, absorption, circulation, and the final act of assimila- 
tion. Regarding the nutritive process as a whole, the most 
important consideration regarding it is the fact that through 
its agency nutritive material is converted into living matter. 
This process is one of progression, beginning in the digestive 
tract and completed in the glandular system. The substances 
so formed, the lymph or chyle corpuscles, are in mere en- 
dowment of life superior to any other substances in the body. 
The nutritive function, therefore, lays the physical founda- 
tions of life, replenishing its reservoirs and vitalizing its 
streams. 

Having briefly outlined some of the principal systems 
and organs of which the complex body of man is composed. 



u8 A Study of Man. 

let us regard then in situ, each in its proper place with due 
relation to one another. We have not yet discovered the 
mainspring of life. What makes the wheels go round? If 
we now observe a living man, what do we see? First, he 
breathes; the lungs expand and contract, and there is the 
incoming and outgoing tide of air. The expansion and con- 
traction of the heart is synchronous with the action of the 
lungs, and the blood starts on its busy round supplying life- 
giving elements to every part, and removing effete matter 
to be exposed in the lungs to the transforming power oi oxy- 
gen. The muscles quiver with expectancy, awaiting the 
thrill of life at command of the will. Life blooms on the 
cheek; intelligence beams in the eye; emotion dances like a 
band of nymphs around the mobile mouth, and the conscious 
soul of man beams in the human face. What have we here 
not discernible from our previous outlines of the systems 
and organs? We have motion, visible, rhythmic motion. 
The breath typifies and illustrates this motion. The 
regularity with which we breathe in and breathe out is 
a to-and-fro motion from surface to center, and from center 
to surface. Thus is expressed and illustrated man's relation 
to the world about him. He is a self-conscious center of 
life, adjusting his relations to his surroundings at every 
breath, and the process of the incoming food and the out- 
going debris are upon the same principle. We seldom pause 
to consider how much motion has to do with both the main- 
tenance and the manifestation of life. If we imagine an in- 
dividual reclining in an easy posture, how do we know 
whether he is alive or dead? His face is calm, his eyes 
wide open. Is he conscious or unconscious, alive or dead? 
Let us see. We address him, and he makes no response ; 
still he may be playing a part, or he may be in a trance. 
Notice the eyelids; they move not, not a quiver around the 
sensitive mouth, no visible sign of life, no outward manifes- 
tation. We seek the pulse to see if the blood-wave reaches 
the wrist. It is not there ; we drop the ear to the region ove" 



Human Life. 119 

the heart, no sound is heard. We rest the hand over the 
chest, but can detect no rise or fall. We lift an arm, and 
on letting it go it falls as a dead weight. The case is now 
desperate. As a last resort we hold a mirror to the mouth, 
and its brightness is not dimmed by a faint breath; or we 
press the blood from the surface veins, and it returns not. 
Alas, he is dead ! Trances have been known so deep as to 
resemble death, but they are the exception and need not be 
noted here. We thus see that internal molecular and rhyth- 
mic motion, and outward visible motion, are the conditions 
of life and its manifestation. We have here just the condi- 
tions that were shown in a previous section to belong to the 
external world of phenomena. These same conditions also 
concern the outward manifestation of consciousness, but do 
not concern consciousness per se; for just the conditions 
above described have occurred, and the individual has pre- 
served the memory of conscious experience thus occurring 
under altogether different surroundings and conditions. 

We have thus sought the mainspring of life in a compli- 
cated mechanism by viewing its larger aspects, and by pro- 
ceeding from without inward. Let us now study man from 
his beginning. 

The body of man in common with all animals and plants 
originates in a germ. Previous to fertilization the germ 
resembles a tissue cell. It has no continuous life of its 
own apart from the body that produced it. Fertilization or 
impregnation constitutes it an independent center of life, 
which, under definite conditions, it can maintain and expand. 
It begins to unfold or evolve as elsewhere described or out- 
lined. Life it had already as endowed by the maternal life. 
This pre-existing life comprised exceeding mobility, irrita- 
bility and sensitiveness. There was doubtless latent con- 
sciousness, but now it starts on its upward journey toward 
self-consciousness. Definite relations are established be- 
tween center and surface; and these relations accompany it 
in all its subsequent career. The struggle for existence from 



120 A Study of Man. 

germ to adult life of man is a continual adjustment between 
center and surface — between the individual and his environ- 
ment. The ideal center becomes self-conscious. If this, 
however, were all, man would be a living cell, large or small, 
simple or complex, but no more. We have similar organ- 
isms, but they are never endowed with the human form di- 
vine. A single act of impregnation starts the whole process. 
From the physical side of the problem nutrition and differ- 
entiation comprise it. A center of life derives from these 
two processes that which enables the plant to compass and 
continue its cycle and maintain it perennially; but they do 
not account for the specific form even of plants. Grant that 
the unfolding of this form is progressive both in individuals 
and in species ; but whence arises the definite type toward 
which progress is continually made? We have already 
shown that all lower forms of life may be regarded as frag- 
ments of the human, and that the higher mammals are rudi- 
mentary human beings. What does the act of impregnation 
do, aside from establishing an independent center of life? 
It impresses upon the germ the specific character and limi- 
tations of the paternal form. This endowment meets the en- 
dowment of personality on the physical side at the very 
center, and the union of these constitutes the germ of self- 
consciousness, just as the endowment of life on the vegeta- 
tive plane creates a germ of consciousness The ideal form 
is an overshadowing presence progressively involved at every 
stage of growth as the outer structure is evolved. In the 
human embryo this is the Adonai, the shining one. It is an 
endowment from the subjective world through the spiritual 
side of man's nature, and so maintains the duality of human 
existence, and preserves and progressively perfects the hu- 
man form. 

The germ when vivified begins then to unfold. It at 
first vegetates ; cells multiply as in the simplest plant. 
Membranous expansions of cells arise; then a mere trace in- 
dicates the spinal cord and digestive tract. One little mass 



Human Life. 121 

indicates the location 01 the brain, inclosing two little vesi- 
cles, the rudimentary eyes. Little currents slightly branch- 
ing show where by and by the pulses shall beat, ebb and flow, 
and presently on one of these appears a slight expansion, 
and in this a gentle quivering motion. The elixir works; 
the magic of life has begun to show forth ; the heart has 
caught the rhythm of the ether and is 

"Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of runic rhyme." 

By and by the organs are all formed; the miniature man 
or woman is complete; the beating of the little heart can be 
heard through the walls of its dark prison. Then comes the 
throes of anguish, the agony of motherhood. Miraculous 
changes are rapidly taking place, in heart, in liver, in blood- 
vessels; old channels are dried up, and new ones formed. 
Little -doors close forever. There comes a gasp, a sigh, a 
faint wail. The little cheeks are crimson, the chest rises and 
falls ; the wheels of life go round ; the miracle is accom- 
plished; a child is born. There is little intelligence in the 
eyes that shun the light, yet there may be a deeper intelli- 
gence of the world from whence the little one comes. Who 
.knows ? 

"Who can tell what a baby thinks? 
Who can follow the gossamer links 
By which the manikin feels its way 
Out from the shore of the great unknown, 
Weeping and wailing and. all alone?" 

All future growth is but a continuation of processes al- 
ready begun. No principle can be discovered in the life of 
man that has not here its root and rise. The dawn of con- 
sciousness, the growth of intelligence, the manifestation of 
life through co-ordinate rhythm establishing that equilibrium 
we call health, all these have their potency and prophecy in 



122 A Study of Man. 

the vivified germ. Millions of times this miracle is repeated, 
yet millions regard it with indifference. Accident, caprice, 
or blind lust determines it ten thousand times where love 
and wise forethought provide for it but once. Nativities are 
saturated with murder and marked by paternal thoughts that 
are crimes. Little helpless souls are thus scarred all over, 
and evil destinies are thus heaped upon them from their very 
birth. O horrible reproach on the divine office of parentage ! 
And yet we wonder at perversity, at wickedness and at crime, 
and build almshouses and prisons, asylums for the insane, 
and homes for the multiplicity of our abominations, and 
then credit ourselves with Christian charity ! Even yet our 
boasted civilization has not done with these waifs of time, 
brought here without their consent, denied the royal wel- 
come which is theirs by divine right. Unwelcome, perverse, 
bearing the sins of matured wickedness in their frail bodies, 
hedged about, handicapped by the very Medusa's helmet, 
terrified, bewildered, it would seem that the measure of our 
iniquity were full and their damnation complete. But no, 
we summon the sacred name and garb of religion and follow 
them into the unseen and unknown. Having perfected the 
tragedy called life, we crown peaceful, silent, beneficent 
death with fear and despair ! If you deny this portraiture, 
my brother, my sister, tell us whence this surging mass that 
fill our prisons and insane asylums? Whence the larger mass 
that scout the very name of religion, that clamor for work, 
for bread ? Whence come the mobs, the anarchists, the mur- 
derers, the suicides? Count these millions in our boasted 
civilization, and call it Christian if you can. There is but 
one single cause for all this misery of human life, and it can 
be spoken in one word, egotism. It arises from ingrained 
selfishness, derived from the animal in man, forgetting all 
good for the sake of self. Selfish passion, a moment's pleas- 
ure and an age of pain, selfish greed, the survival of the 
fittest, what are these but the shibboleth of the devil, the 
slogan of the infernal regions? It is not a hell for man, 



Human Life. 123 

but a hell in man, created by man. "Human beings are not 
fit to be parents till they are morally of age, and as being is 
before knowing and doing, I affirm that education can never 
repair the defects of birth."* It has been elsewhere shown 
that all inherited bias pertains to the temporary personality 
of man, and that the self-conscious individuality has to get 
rid of the evil heritage, and confirm and co-ordinate the 
virtuous heritage by use in order to make it his own. There 
is no subject that lies so near the cause of all human ills, 
and that is so potent a factor in the regeneration of the hu- 
man race as the conditions of parentage and the influence of 
so-called heredity, or natal and ante-natal conditions. When- 
ever as much care and forethought are bestowed on the be- 
getting of children as upon the breeding of horses and cat- 
tle, a new order of humanity will appear on the earth. If 
the reader is disposed to ridicule such plain speaking, let 
him first ask himself whether these considerations are not 
true. Having satisfied himself on this point, as a mere mat- 
ter of intelligence, he may ridicule or approve as seemeth to 
him best. 

Having briefly outlined the process by which the fertil- 
ized germ develops into a child, by evolution of the bodily 
structure and involution of the human form, and having ar- 
rived at the basis of all subsequent function, all human 
qualities which exist potentially in the child, we shall find 
that the conditions of further unfolding are the same in 
kind as in the embryo, though differing in form and condi- 
tions. From germ to birth the process is continuous, though 
it seems to be marked by distinct stages. Between these 
various stages there are, however, no abrupt transitions. 
Each preceding stage leads up by imperceptible degrees to 
the one that follows. Take, for example, the nutritive 
changes. First we have the merely vegetative form of cell 
multiplication and cell nutrition. As the embryonic 

* James Pierpont Greaves. 



124 A Study of Man. 

life advances this form of nutrition is replaced by what 
is known as tuft nutrition. This again gives place to 
placental nutrition, and this again to lactation after the birth 
of the child. These various changes or stages of nutrition 
relate to the method and mechanism by which the nutritive 
material is elaborated or raised from non-living to living 
matter. In plain terms the only question is: Where does 
the germ, the embryo, the foetus and the child get its food? 
In all these cases the answer is : from the maternal body. 
The process called weaning is the most abrupt and radical 
of all these nutritive changes. Henceforth the child manu- 
factures its own matter-of-life, raises so-called dead matter 
to the form called living-biogen. The process by which this 
living matter is differentiated into tissues and organs is from 
first to last the same. The process by which a tissue, an 
organ or an entire organism is built, is the same process by 
which when built these all continue to act. In other words, 
the basic principle behind all function is the principle which 
determines growth and development of structure. The func- 
tion builds the organ ; the organ exercises the function ; the 
principle of sound builds the ear ; the principle of light builds 
the eye ; the principle upon which thought proceeds builds 
the brain, and so on, else organ and function would not be 
so definitely related. The act of impregnation sets in motion 
the wheels of life. Evolution of the physical structure be- 
gins. Mobility and irritability of the living matter at the 
center of the germ, the nucleolus, or germinal spot, are pro- 
gressively unfolded and differentiated, evolved from center 
to surface. These outgoing waves and impulses are met and 
limited by ingoing waves that determine the form, limit and 
direct the unfolding of the germ. Between these two groups 
of impulses there is continual adjustment, equilibrium. 
Previous to impregnation the germ is a simple cell, detached 
it is true from the maternal body, conditioned so that it can 
take on an individual existence of its own ; yet without the 
fertilizing process it speedily dies. The genesis of individ- 



Human Life. 125 

ual life on the physical side is coincident with the endow- 
ment of specific form on the spiritual side. There hence 
arises a tension between these processes, and at the center, 
where both unite, there is a poise. Irritability of living mat- 
ter reaohes the sensibility of a growing organism, thence 
proceeds consciousness in the advanced foetus, and finally 
self -consciousness dawns in the child. At birth the organs 
are all formed. The child is a man or a woman in minia- 
ture. The process continues; by the same process of differ- 
entiation and evolution on the one side, and of progressive 
involution on the other, the child expands toward maturity. 
The most important factor herein disclosed is consciousness. 
Potentially it is transmitted like the quality of life itself to 
the germ. We may say senso-genesis and conscio-genesis, 
as well as bio-genesis. Self-consciousness, however, is a 
condition that transcends and co-ordinates all lower forms. 
It is a strictly human attribute. It is the result of man's 
larger and more complete relations to nature on a superior 
plane. Man reaches this plane only by passing through and 
beyond all lower planes. As already pointed out, all low^r 
forms of life, in form and quality, are fragmentary human. 
The higher mammals are rudimentarily human. Man only 
embodies them all. Every human being passes through these 
forms in his embryonic and foetal journey toward self-con- 
sciousness, so that the principle is true in humanity at large 
and in every individual case. It was previously stated that 
all knowledge is derived through experience. Herein may 
be seen man's journey of experience, his kinship with all 
lower nature. His experience on the human plane is the 
concensus of the experience of all lower forms of life, not 
theoretically, but actually. The self-consciousness of man 
is therefore the combined experience of the whole world of 
plants and animals. One might say in all truth and sober- 
ness : "Only a few years ago I was vegetating ; a little later 
I was a mollusk; then a fish swimming in a soul-locked sea; 
and a little later I was a reptile, a bird, a mammal, and now 



126 A Study of Man. 

a man." Memory only is wanting. He has forgotten these 
experiences just as he has ten thousand others since he was 
born. Every physiologist will say that this is true; that so 
far as conditions and relations are known these are the phys- 
iological facts. But a still further and far more important 
inference remains to be drawn. If self-consciousness in 
man implies a concensus of all lower forms of experience, 
is there not a still higher human plane ? Is there not a state 
in which man rises to a higher plane, where the individual 
through sympathy and love may become the concensus of 
humanity, and so reach divine consciousness, an all-consoling 
sympathy, an all-embracing love ? In this state may we not 
remember those who are bound as though bound with them, 
mourning with those who mourn, rejoicing with those that 
rejoice, the animal egotism giving place to the divine altru- 
ism ? This is the true meaning of Christos. What we call 
the human is an intermediate stage between the animal and 
the divine. The body of man then is a human form in which 
to unfold divine attributes — a wayside inn in the upward 
journey of the soul. We may study man to some purpose if 
we will, and learn the meaning of life and the destiny of 
the soul. To do this we must honor every truth by use, and 
learn here as elsewhere by experience. Blind superstition 
and ignorant credulity have had their day, so has material- 
istic science. A diviner science awaits him who places truth 
above all things, for all truth is given by inspiration, and all 
truth is divine. The true, the good, and God are one. Man 
learns these as he learns to know pain and pleasure, by ex- 
perience. 

The human body does not necessarily imply human qual- 
ities. In a certain sense man is only a higher animal. We 
may degrade every human attribute to the very lowest ani- 
mal plane. Destruction, rapacity and cruelty, coupled with 
the human consciousness and intelligence, are in no sense 
human. The essentially human is the humane; and in this 
regard many of the lower animals in affection and faithful- 



Human Life. 127 

ness, even in the face of abuse and cruelty, might cause 
many a man to blush for his inhumanity. The most fitting 
associates for many persons would be the tiger, the hyena or 
the snake. This is neither more nor less than the develop- 
ment of the animal ego, and the more common forms of lust 
and greed may be a little less animal, but scarcely more hu- 
mane. Selfishness is the root of all these, and this is essen- 
tially brutal and not human. We have seen that polariza- 
tion implies a tension between two points, ideally a straight 
line having two extremities and a wave of motion between 
these. Aside from matter, force and motion, we have the 
idea of form, and this again includes molecular motion and 
differentiation. All these are concomitants of polarity. A 
magnetic needle is a piece of steel rhythmically adjusted to 
the polar magnetic wave, and mechanically free to maintain 
this relation in the face of all oscillations. Its horizontal 
position presents the line of least attraction to the terrestrial 
magnetism. The human body is composed of an innumer- 
able number of polarized cells. The grouping of these cells 
is according to the principle of polarity. The body of man 
as a whole is magnetic, and consists of a series of magnets, 
the poles of which are systematically yet subordinately ar- 
ranged. The magnetic centers of the body are many, and 
the supremacy of any given center may be fixed or tempo- 
rary. It may be the' cerebral center that governs at one 
time, the sexual center at another, the gustatory at another, 
and so on. There are also centers of vitality proper, as the 
heart and lungs connected with the medulla. The cerebellum 
is a co-ordinating center of muscular motion. The solar 
plexus and spleen are related together as the true magnetic 
center, while the cerebrum is a co-ordinating center of cen- 
ters. The relation of the human body to the earth is en- 
tirely different when it is prone and when it is erect. In the 
one case the correlative earth's magnetism is related to the 
diamagnetism of man; in the other, to magnetism proper. 
In the prone position we may be said to absorb magnetism; 



128 A Study of Man. 

in the upright position we dissipate it. In Von Reichen- 
bach's experiments a stream of light was seen to issue from 
the eyes, from the hands and feet, from the genital and gas- 
tric regions. In some cases this magnetic light has been seen 
to stream from the back of the head and fill the room. Of 
the normal body as a whole the head is positive and the feet 
negative; the right hand is positive, the left negative, and 
so on. The arterial blood is positive and the venous nega- 
tive, and the heart is an electro-motor by virtue of the pres- 
ence and tidal waves of red and blue blood. The contraction 
and relaxation of muscle becomes possible through the cir- 
culation by which the muscular tension is renewed. Every 
muscle is to some extent a storage-battery. These points 
might be multiplied almost without end. Our object is only 
to demonstrate the existence of the principle of polarity and 
to illustrate its mode of action. 

Terrestrial magnetism separates the androgynous shoot 
in the germinating seed, and sends the male element deep 
into the bowels of the earth, and the female element up into 
the air with its potency of leaf and flower and its prophecy 
of fruit and seed. The tree is thus anchored to the earth, 
and its polarity is thus fixed. Quadrupeds and all other 
lower animals maintain a comparatively uniform magnetic 
relation to the earth and their surroundings. Man alone is 
an upright animal, a center of life, and a law unto himself 
commensurate with knowledge. Alan's relation to surround- 
ing nature is thus positive in a far higher degree than that 
of any other animal. He commands the forces of nature, 
adjusts himself to her varying moods, and thus conquers 
through obedience to her laws. Nature steadfastly refuses 
to be subordinated in any other way. In a certain large 
sense man is therefore positive in his relations to nature, 
and the degree in which he is able to maintain this relation 
is, as already stated, in direct proportion to his knowledge 
and obedience to law. The degree of this positive relation 
of man to nature determines temperament, health, vigor and 



Human Life. 129 

his relation to his fellow-men. It is moreover the foundation 
of sex and the relation of the sexes to each other. The 
positive man triumphs over the negative, who is the weaker 
element. Motive gives color to the result of this domination, 
but does not determine the fact. As a rule man is positive 
and woman negative as related to each other, though notable 
exceptions can be found. This is the normal relation, and 
they may be equal in power notwithstanding this relation, 
for woman naturally triumphs through the affectional na- 
ture, and man through the intellectual. The higher the in- 
dividual in the scale of being, the more these two natures 
are united in him or in her. The very variableness of these 
conditions and relations enables man to adjust himself to his 
surroundings and to triumph over all lower forms of life. 
To illustrate man's positive relations to nature, let us imag- 
ine a well-born, well-developed individual in health. Health 
blooms in the cheeks, intelligence in his eyes; reason sits en- 
throned on his brow ; strength and elasticity are in his step, 
and courage and cheerfulness are in his voice. He is born 
to command, to triumph, to endure. Imagine now that he 
is suddenly alarmed, terrified. His cheeks grow pale ; his 
eyes, dull and staring, his hair stands endwise ; a chill creeps 
over his flesh, his knees tremble, his voice falters or fails ; 
his heart flutters, and his breath comes with a gasp or a 
shriek. A mere mental emotion has instantly conquered 
more swift and sure than Delilah. Samson is shorn of his 
strength. The man has suddenly reversed his whole rela- 
tion to external nature. This negative condition is produced 
in part or in whole, in greater or less degree, by a great 
variety of causes. It is more or less approximated by the 
scenes and influences of night that succeeds the day, and by 
the innumerable predisposing causes of disease — all excesses, 
all forms of dissipation, and all previous disease. There- 
fore, fear or any other cause that produces this negative con- 
dition invites disease. Anything that disturbs the equilib- 
rium and harmony of the body as a whole, or in part, be- 



130 A Study of Man. 

gets disease and tends toward dissolution. Not only habits 
of body, but habits of thought may thus be classed as con- 
servative or destructive. The habitual indulgence of envy, 
hatred, avarice or lust, tends to the promotion of bodily dis- 
ease ; while pure and noble thoughts, and the exercise of love 
and kindness, promote life and health and insure happiness, 
even in a strictly physiological sense. 

Through the great dual law of action and reaction man 
is enabled to regain his lost equilibrium, though frequent 
repetition of disturbing influences weakens resistance and 
tends to the fixation of the evil habit. As shown under the 
law of differentiation, the complexity of any organ in man 
is not a necessity per se, so far as the special function, is 
concerned; but is rendered necessary by the complexity of 
the organism of which it is a part, on the principle of equilib- 
rium and general harmony of the whole individual. These 
relations of parts to the whole, and of the whole organism 
to its environment, whereby equilibrium is secured and har- 
mony maintained through primordial and subordinate cen- 
ters, are bound to one another by definite ratios. The prin- 
ciple is the same as that which underlies the whole science 
of music. Indeed every principle in nature is epitomized in 
man, according to the plane of his ascent and development. 
There is in nature a unit of space, a unit of time, a unit of 
matter, of force and of motion ; and there is a common mul- 
tiple of all these which justly contains them all. How else 
could harmony result anywhere, and nature unfold on a uni- 
form plan? This common multiple exists in man as the key- 
note of his life, determining the pitch and quality, the major 
or the minor character of his heing. This principle may be 
most readily illustrated by the functions of the lungs and 
heart, and their relations to each other and to the rest of 
the organism. Both these functions vary in different indi- 
viduals. The beating of the heart is modified by many 
causes, as is also the respiration; but in general terms the 
respiration is to the heart's action as one to four. In modern 



Human Life. 131 

life there will generally be found a fraction in favor of the 
heart, but this is due to the immense strain that is put upon 
that organ by nervous excitement and unnatural modes of 
life. In these two organs with their complicated functions 
may be centered many of the essentials of life. These func- 
tions determine the rhythm, the pitch and the quality of the 
physical life of man. These processes, respiration and cir- 
culation, if rightly interpreted, may furnish a coefficient of 
the individual life. They are the mathematical basis, and 
may lead to the metaphysical basis, just as we find biogen 
the physical basis, giving rise to form by differentiation. In 
health we inhale and exhale with perfect regularity. This 
simple process illustrates the whole mechanism of man as a 
complex being. If we could witness the process that occurs 
in the pulmonary capillaries we should see a pulsating mass 
composed of tubes, enlarging and contracting rhythmically, 
and at the climax of expansion instantly changing color 
from a dull leaden blue to a living — nay, luminous crimson, 
as though the bellows were regularly applied to the smolder- 
ing embers of life. Sleeping or waking this process goes on, 
from the first faint gasp of the new-born child to the last 
breath of the centogenarian. The elements or equivalents 
of force which maintain this wonderful process are derived 
directly from the great solar plexus, while the rhythmic 
power, co-ordinating these activities with all other functions 
of the body, is derived from the brain and spinal cord 
through the pneumo-gastric and cerebro-spinal centers. 
Through these last named structures the chemism of the 
body is subordinated to its vitality; and with the control of 
the sweat-glands and general excretory outlets, and the epi- 
thelial tissues aided by the thermic nerves, the temperature 
is maintained with most remarkable uniformity. This pro- 
cess that we have imagined as witnessed in the lungs is con- 
tinued to the remotest elements of the body. If we could 
witness the display of the body's finer forces we should see 
it expand and contract at every breath, and rhythmically 



132 A Study of Man. 

brighten, as if a human glow-worm. We know as a matter 
of fact that the magnetic power of the body is largely and 
immediately increased by slow, deep inspirations, and that 
this accumulative power can thus be thrown from the hands 
upon a sensitive person in sensible quantities producing 
marked effects. 

This to-and-fro respiratory motion may be taken as rep- 
resentative of the entire bodily functions. Large quantities 
of food and drink are taken in and an equivalent given off 
continually, so that the physical as well as the physiological 
and psychical equilibrium is maintained. Here then is the 
operation of a twofold law, attraction and repulsion, inspi- 
ration and expiration, oxidation and de-oxidation, expan- 
sion and contraction, diastole and systole, sensation and mo- 
tion — all these operations illustrating the law that lies, at 
the very foundation of the manifestation of life. This is the 
principle of universal duality. Its operation is like the 
swinging of a pendulum; just so far as the oscillation pro- 
ceeds in one direction, just so far must it go in the opposite 
direction, and with equal force and velocity, else all the 
wheels of life run down and time for man ceases. This 
principle of duality lies at the foundation of every function 
of man, is the basis of all pathology, and in every case de- 
termines drug action. There is always action and reaction, 
and these are ideally but not mechanically equal. It is be- 
cause they are unequal, in fact, that man sickens and dies 
before his time. To secure this exact equality is the secret 
of perpetual youth. Every vital problem, therefore, in 
health or in disease, presents itself as an equation to be 
solved. The somnolence produced by opium is succeeded by 
insomnia; stimulation is followed by depression; excitement 
is followed by lassitude. The manifestation of these effects 
may sometimes seem unequal. Sometimes the reaction may 
seem out of all proportion to the primary action. This is 
because in one case the effect is precipitated on a single or- 
gan or a single group, and in the other case it is diffused 



Human Life. 133 

over wider areas. It is as though one member of the equa- 
tion were a unit and the other member a series of fractions 
reducible to the same unit. Another apparent exception is 
seen in youth and old age. The recuperative power in the 
one case and the waning vitality in the other do not annul 
the equation, but merely alter the form of its members and 
modify the true method of solution, the principle is the same. 
In youth thene is a reserve of physical power, the vital reser- 
voir is full. In the decline of life the physical forces fail 
but the higher powers ripen. The planes of life are naturally 
reversed in youth and age, not only as regards the physical 
and rational faculties, but this reversal involves the sensuous 
ami spiritual powers as well. The poet Heine has beautifully 
expressed this change : 

"Warm summer dwells upon thy cheek 

And in thy laughing eyes; 
While in thy little heart, fair child, 

Cold, frosty winter lies. 

But these I think as time rolls on 

Will play a different part; 
Then winter on thy cheek shall be, 

And summer in thy heart." 

Let us now briefly examine some of the functions of the 
body. These are divided into two general groups. In the 
first category are placed those that atre directly concerned 
in the maintenance of the bodily structure; such as diges- 
tion, absorption, secretion, circulation, respiration and re- 
production. These are called organic functions. In the 
other category are placed all other functions, and these, 
while indirectly concerned in the maintenance of the bodily 
life, are concerned with higher and more special offices. To 
these belong sensation, muscular motion, thought, and all 
the higher mental operations, and more especially the co- 
ordinating function of the nerve centers. These last named 
secure the equilibrium and harmony of the whole organism 



134 A Study of Man. 

through an equable distribution of energy, both as regards 
dissipation and the conservation of force. 

All function implies motion, and this motion may be vis- 
ible, bodily motion, or internal, perceptible motion, like that 
■of the heart and pulse-wave; or again, it may consist of im- 
perceptible molecular motion, like that present in processes 
of digestion^ oxidation, nutrition and the like. 

The manifestation of life and the exercise of function 
alike depend on motion, and are equally phenomenal. Let 
us suppose that we have under observation an individual in 
health, and in a passive condition ; that is, with all the organs 
quiescent; the bodily temperature is normal, the breathing 
quiet and regular, the heart's action rhythmical, and the 
circulation equable. Now let us introduce food into this in- 
dividual's stomach; this will be the signal for very marked 
changes to occur. The color of the stomach changes from 
a pale pinkish hue to a crimson ; it becomes thickened and 
roughened. If a delicate thermometer were now applied to 
the coat of the stomach there would be found a perceptible 
rise in temperature. If the gastric blood-vessels are exam- 
ined they will be found engorged, and the general circula- 
tion and the heart's action will be found to be accelerated. 
By this time there is a flow from the mouths of the gastric 
follicles of gastric juice. This is incorporated with the food, 
and digestion has begun. The signal for all these changes is 
the mere presence of food in the stomach. The presence of 
an indigestible substance, or the irritating of the stomach 
with a stick, would produce similar results. There is a 
change in color, change in the thickness of the coat of the 
stomach, increase of blood, increased chemical action, and 
hence increased temperature. During this process there is 
a withdrawal both of blood and of energy from the entire 
organism to be focused on the stomach, which is now the 
center of activity. Digestion in the stomach being com- 
pleted, the stomach is emptied of its contents and resumes 
its normal quiescent condition, while the center of activity 



Human Life. 135 

passes down, accompanying the food along the digestive 
tract, till the resultants of digestion enter the blood. If this 
activity of the stomach is unduly prolonged, if too much food 
or indigestible food be taken, every degree that the stomach 
is rendered active beyond the normal point, as to time 
or quantity of activity, constitutes functional disease, the 
difference between normal and abnormal activity being 
solely one of degree. In the one case the action is called 
physiological; in the other, unphysiological. Herein are 
seen both the conditions and phenomena of all physiological 
activity, no matter what tissues or organs are involved. 
Even the function of the brain and the process of thought 
are no exception. Functional activity implies an increase 
of blood to the part acting, therefore increased size and in- 
creased color; increased activity, therefore more rapid oxi- 
dation, chemism, and this increased activity is followed by 
lassitude or a measure of exhaustion calling for rest. Like- 
wise in all cases normal activity is physiological, abnormal 
activity is unphysiological, constituting functional disorder, 
which, when oft repeated or long continued, extends to per- 
manent derangement of structure. Functional activity 
merges in functional disorder, and this into chronic disturb- 
ance of function and finally into organic disease. Again, in 
the functional changes observed in the stomach we have all 
the symptoms of inflammation here as elsewhere, function 
falls short of inflammation only in degree. In either case 
the tendency is for the phenomena to subside and for the 
equilibrium to be restored. Whenever the restorative proc- 
ess is unduly prolonged and unusually difficult, and the re- 
cuperative energy of the organism begins to fail, the result 
is fever. The entire organism thus participates in the dis- 
turbance. The primary conditions are now manifest on a 
larger scale. Inflammation and fever indicate disturbance, 
but they in no sense constitute disease, but rather should be 
regarded as local and general efforts to get rid of disease. 
An organism that is incapable of inflammation and fever is 



136 A Study of Man. 

incapable of maintaining its own integrity. Such an organ- 
ism is not long capable of life. Without inflammation no 
wound unites. The point of perfect health is indicated when 
the local inflammation is exactly sufficient to unite the wound 
and no more. In such cases the repair seems almost mirac- 
ulous. Perfect health is however somewhat rare. In such, 
cases, where there is general disturbance and fever, from, 
whatsoever cause, immediately preceding the rise in tem- 
perature there is an interval of general depression, and in 
very many cases a chill. The fever is a reaction from this 
depressed condition, and depression again follows the fever 
in its subsidence. The oscillations become less marked till 
equilibrium is restored. These oscillations of depression and 
elevation, of chill and fever, are characteristic of all acute 
inflammations and of all fevers, though they are sometimes 
so slight as to elude observation depending in such cases on 
a large degree of vitality. The measure and degree of dan- 
ger in all subsequent conditions is thus often indicated by 
the severity of the chill, though here again, if the oscilla- 
tions be extreme and the vitality be great, the disturbance all 
the sooner subsides. It may thus be seen that every case of 
disturbed function or disease is complete in itself, and to be 
judged and measured by itself, though occurring under the 
form of the general vital equation, the duality of nature. 

Medical writers have found great difficulty in defining 
fever just in proportion as their theories have allowed them 
to forget the conditions and manifestation of all functional 
activity. Inasmuch as both functional activity and patho- 
logical disturbance or inflammation produce local exhaus- 
tion requiring rest, removal of disintegrated matter and re- 
pair by nutrition; so is the chill that precedes fever an ap- 
proximate death of the whole bodily structure, and the ele- 
vated temperature that follows is due to the more rapid 
oxidation requisite to remove effete matter, and the loss of 
strength and flesh so manifest in long-continued fevers is 
thus explained. Sometimes the slowly waning tide of life 



Human Life. 137 

Is a long time in reaching the point where fever begins, but 
the principle is the same. Causes and conditions vary, and 
hence the results vary in intensity and in time, but the law 
is always the same. Action followed by reaction, reaction 
followed again by action, till equilibrium is restored, or till 
death results. Differences in age, in sex, in temperament, in 
natural vitality, in inherited or acquired pre-disposition, 
differences in climate, in occupation, in modes of thought, in 
aims of life, and, even more than all these, differences in the 
intensity of the will to live go far toward determining re- 
sults, not only in life, but in all disturbances of function or 
vitality of tissues. Without a knowledge of these facts no 
adequate conception of the nature of man is possible. Even 
a knowledge of the essential nature of the soul, such as no 
one in modern life possesses, would still be deficient if lack- 
ing a knowledge of the conditions under which the soul 
lives and acts in the human body, and in relation to its pres- 
ent environment in a world of phenomena. 

The law of action may readily be determined; .the con- 
ditions and results of action are to be determined in each in- 
dividual case, and in every moment of time. These results 
of varied experience are precipitated in consciousness as in 
an alembic ; the original details of experience may be blotted 
out forever. None know, and none need care so long as we 
have still their full equivalent. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



In a previous section reference was made to the princi- 
ples of differentiation and the community of function in the 
evolution of organisms and of species. Through the opera- 
tion of these principles it was shown how reserved areas 
arise that are not directly involved in organic functions, and 
that these areas constitute co-ordinating centers preserving 
the harmony of the lower structures and functions, and des- 
tined to still higher offices in the special economy of man. 
It was further pointed out that the complexity of an organ 
and its functions is not a direct necessity of the function to 
be performed per se, but that such complexity is rendered 
necessary by the general complexity of the entire organism 
of which it forms a part. Only thus could equilibrium be 
established and harmony result. This complexity, in whole 
and in part, is evolved progressively from simple forms in 
which the given function was still performed. Indeed the 
function must have existed potentially in the vivified germ 
prior to all organs proper. 

Under the head of Physical Synthesis, Herbert Spencer 
has shown very clearly the process by which nervous tissue 
may arise by the successive passage of waves of motion 
through a mass of colloids. These waves pursue a defi- 
nite direction following the line of least resistance. Each 
successive wave of motion meets with less and less resist- 
ance, and hence a larger amount of energy is continually 
transmitted through the line of colloids. The polarized 
colloids are thus progressively wheeled into line of polar ar- 

(138) 



The Nervous System. 139 

rangement. A considerable amount of energy is thus used 
in bringing this about; but this amount is constantly becom- 
ing less and less as the amount of energy transmitted be- 
comes greater, till at last a line of colloids is arranged in 
polar agreement ; resistance has ceased and the highest trans- 
mission of power is attained. If we conceive that polarity 
arises coincident with the development of tissue, and not 
after cells are formed, we shall realize ithat which undoubt- 
edly occurs as above illustrated. This principle of polar ar- 
rangement not only obtains in the development of the nerve 
fibers, in the building up of nerve tissue, but in all subse- 
quent transmission of the nerve impulse after birth, where- 
by we gain facility in muscular manipulation and are en- 
abled to cultivate the senses; the process may be seen to be 
the same. Repeated transmission overcomes resistance and 
increases the accumulative result. Hence the process by 
which tissue is formed and by which function originates is 
that also by which it is afterward perfected and exercised. 
The function per se builds the tissue and the organ; the 
organ so built exercises the function. Living matter in- 
volves the peculiar function ; the function so involved evolves 
the tissue and the organ. The principle under consideration 
may be called the physical basis of education. 

The basic function of simple living matter is irritability. 
Living matter responds to an irritant and reacts upon all 
received impressions. It is sensitive in the same sense but 
in infinitely larger degree than the photographer's plate. 
Proteus quivers with life and mirrors all impressions. Or- 
ganization fixes these impressions. Sensibility passes beyond 
mere sensitiveness by the addition of consciousness. Con- 
sciousness implies a center of life; the universal with the 
added element of consciousness becomes individual. Simple 
living matter is an element of an organism, and is incapable 
of arising or existing separate from it. The establishment 
of a center of life, as in a germ, establishes the first requi- 
site of separate existence. 



140 A Study of Man. 

Diagrammatically the nervous mechanism is a series of 
cells and protoplasmic threads — polarities, whereby either 
directly or indirectly every living cell of the animal body is 
connected with every other cell, and every cell with the body 
as a whole. The nerve centers, or ganglia, are mechanically 
the most wonderful devices simplifying the connection of all 
parts of the body with each other. Large masses of cells 
are in communication with a series of nerve fibers; these 
nerve fibers unite in a common trunk; this trunk communi- 
cates with a ganglion ; other masses of cells similarly related 
to nerves and to trunk communicate with a ganglion, and the 
two ganglia are united by a commissure. In this manner the 
most distant masses of cells are in intimate association, thus 
securing a certain amount of relatively independent action, 
yet at the same time capable of joint and harmonious ac- 
tivity. This elaboration of the function of irritability through 
the nervous mechanism, whereby sensibility is developed in 
relation to consciousness, does not entirely withdraw the 
quality of sensitiveness from other tissues. Both living mat- 
ter and differentiated tissue other than nerve tissue trans- 
mit impressions, though in a vague and indeterminate man- 
ner. When, however, such impressions reach the nerve tis- 
sue, they are brought into definite relations to nerve centers 
and to consciousness. The first or diffused impressions con- 
cern quantity, the second concern quality. The basic im- 
pressions caused by heat and cold are very closely allied, 
and the effect of these on the vitality of a part, when ex- 
treme, are the same, producing disintegration and sloughing. 
The impressions produced by what we call pleasure and pain 
are also very similar. It requires both consciousness and a 
nervous system educated by experience to distinguish be- 
tween such opposite impressions, to say nothing of impres- 
sions more closely related. An organized nerve transmits 
impressions automatically, and directly, without lateral 
transmission. The ganglia separate, combine and register 
impressions. In the registry of impressions a similar proc- 



The Nervous System. 141 

ess may be conceived as occurring as in the formation of 
nerve tracts, with, however, this difference: in case of nerve 
formation, polarization implies a direct line of discharge be- 
tween two points. In the case of ganglionic formation and 
function the impression returns to the point of beginning, or 
doubles on itself. These two forms of impressions and struc- 
tures are related to each other as straight lines are related 
to circles. There is, however, a still further difference in re- 
gard to the fixation of forms. In the fiber the form is com- 
paratively fixed, the tissue of the nerve proper is firm, 
smooth and glistening. The soft gray matter of the ganglia 
preserves more or less the spheroidal form, and is therefore 
less permanently fixed, and admits of frequent re-arrange- 
ment of molecules, and re-distribution of impressions. 
Hence registration of impressions by nerve centers is no 
more a final act than is the direct transmission- of impres- 
sions by nerve fibers. The registration of an impress-ion, 
therefore, involves its transmission to the registering gan- 
glion, as well as the whole series of changes by which it 
originates, and to which it gives rise. The physical basis 
of memory therefore cannot be conceived as solely the gray 
matter of the nerve centers, nor can it be confined to the 
nervous system, nor to the entire physical body; for these, 
in part and in whole, in every experience include conscious- 
ness as one term of the equation. We could not be conceived 
as remembering anything of which we are entirely uncon- 
scious. On the other hand, it is well to remember that the 
most painful or the most pleasurable experience, occurring 
with full consciousness, is not long retained; and that the 
most of such experiences are in time forgotten. Only con- 
sciousness preserves their equivalence. 

The nervous mechanism may be diagrammatically repre- 
sented by the nerve arc. This consists of a peripheral nerve 
cell with an efferent nerve fiber, a central nerve cell with an 
efferent nerve fiber terminating in some of the active 
tissues. This typical form is the mechanical element 



142 A Study of Man. 

by the multiplication of which the whole nervous structure 
is built. These are multiplied and united to form nervous 
systems. 

The entire nervous mechanism divides into tw.o portions, 
the ganglionic, called also the sympathetic, and the cerebro- 
spinal. These two portions are brought into direct relation 
through the ganglia at the roots of the spinal nerves. The 
sympathetic nervous system is directly related to all the 
structures and functions .of organic life, and indirectly re- 
lated to the senso-motor and intellectual functions. The 
cerebro-spinal nervous system is directly related to the 
senso-motor and intellectual functions, and indirectly 
related to the functions of organic life. These two 
structures therefore supplement each other. The sym- 
pathetic system is in a general way a center of 
correlation of lower forms of energy into nervous 
force; and the cerebro-spinal system is a co-ordinating 
mechanism securing harmony and equilibrium of the entire 
organism. In this harmonious order of complex structures 
and diverse functions the cerebrum presides, and not only 
exercises final jurisdiction, co-ordinating all other centers, 
but is also the center of consciousness, though by no means 
its exclusive seat. Every organized cell is a center of life ; 
every separate organ is relatively a center of consciousness; 
only the brain is the center of self-consciousness. It is, 
however, possible to change the center or seat of conscious- 
ness by concentration of the will and the exercise of the 
imagination, and so to place it under other than the usual 
relations. 

We have spoken of the mechanism, the seat, and the cen- 
ter of consciousness, and of the transmission of impressions, 
as also of the registration of impressions through a redis- 
tribution of matter and change in form of arrangement. All 
these are but the elements through which the varied experi- 
ences of life reach consciousness in an orderly manner from 
the physical side of being. These different parts are defi- 



The Nervous System. 143 

nitely related to the various elements of the phenomenal 
world. All phenomena are expressed in terms of matter, 
force and motion, and occur in space and in time. Each of 
these has a representative sphere and mechanism in the body 
of man. The eye through its mechanism and function is 
definitely related to space and form, and endows the'se .with 
light and color. The ear is a time organ, taking cognizante 
of the succession of phenomena, but as there is a point where 
light and sound co-ordinate, and as they are definitely re- 
lated by a common multiple in vibrations, the two organs, 
the eye and the ear, have supplementary functions. The 
sense of feeling is definitely related to impact, or weight, 
and therefore to matter and mass. In the motor apparatus 
certain nerves and muscles are concerned with force and 
motion. None of these several parts, however, can be disas- 
sociated from its fellows any more than we can separate 
space and time. The various avenues of the body through 
which sensations, perceptions and feelings reach conscious- 
ness are many, but consciousness is one. There is a pro- 
visional center for each group of impressions, and for each 
combination of muscles in the senso-motor apparatus, yet 
all these provisional centers unite in the seat and center of 
consciousness, the cerebrum. It may thus be seen that con- 
sciousness is definitely related on the physical side to the 
phenomenal world through a complicated mechanism which 
is phenomenal in structure and mode of action. Experience 
expands this relation and multiplies its details. These vari- 
ous terms concern the relations and manifestations of con- 
sciousness, but they do not account for consciousness itself. 
It would be indeed foolish to indulge in any speculations as 
to the essential nature of consciousness, when we have al- 
ready acknowledged our entire ignorance of the essence of 
so apparently simple a thing as an atom of matter. The 
relations and manifestations of consciousness, however, are 
very different things ; these are as legitimate subjects for 
study as are the combinations of matter and the manifesta- 



144 ^ Study of Man. 

tions of force. Consciousness is related on the one side to 
the physical body, evolved in space and time, and existing in 
terms of matter, force and motion. Consciousness on the 
other side is related to the ideal human form and quality, 
involved from the subjective world and existing in .the 
boundless ocean of ether. Consciousness unites and co- 
ordinates these two worlds, epitomized in man, and repre- 
sented in terms of experience. The development of man 
through the intermediation of a center of life and conscious- 
ness is therefore a building up of nature and a building down 
of spirit. The bodily form is evolved outwardly from the 
center, consciousness. The human type is involved toward 
the center, consciousness; and coincident with this process 
of evdlution and involution the area of consciousness in the 
individual expands through a twofold experience of the natu- 
ral and spiritual worlds. Hence we derive an idea of the 
relations of individual consciousness to the two worlds of 
being. Motive may be conceived as giving color to all these 
varied experiences, and motive determines our relations to 
truth. Whenever consciousness by its co-ordinate function 
in relation to the two worlds has thus created an individual 
kingdom in man that apprehends a degree of truth, that is, 
has created the two worlds to some extent in man, through 
experience of both, the varied colored motives begin to dis- 
appear, and give place to the white light of truth. This il- 
lumination of consciousness is the dawn of conscience. In 
the presence of the light of truth all other motives give way 
to the love of truth. The animal ego, the selfish motive, re- 
cedes. The individual now does right not through fear of 
evil, nor from motives of personal gain here or hereafter, 
but because truth is in him. There is consonant rhythm in 
his soul. He seeks truth, and truth seeks him by a law of 
attraction as direct and potent as that which draws the arma- 
ture to the magnet, or the needle to the pole. The germ from 
which man's bodily life is developed is first a vehicle capable 
of being endowed with a distinct personality, and so of be- 



The Nervous System. 145 

coming a separate center of life, and of unfolding higher 
powers. The act of impregnation fixes upon it the human 
likeness and sets the wheels of life in motion. Evolution and 
involution now begin, and development passes through the 
various lower forms on its way to man. At birth conscious- 
ness has developed a center, and a vehicle for a twofold ex- 
perience, and the center, consciousness, begins to expand 
into self-consciousness. By the time the child is weaned 
this development of self-consciousness is well under way, 
and personal self-consciousness is complete about the sev- 
enth year. Then begins the struggle between Good and Evil. 
The illumination of consciousness, independent action from 
motive, first of fear and self-interest, and divine conscious- 
ness begin to dawn. True, the child very early shows a per- 
ception of right and wrong, but such perception is reflected 
from its surroundings, and not spontaneous. It can be led 
to believe that it is right to lie and steal, or that it is right 
to pray and to do right. The child's early experience is 
taken second-hand from its parents or guardians. It must 
have liberty to choose, to reject or to select, before it can 
feel responsibility, and discern motive. All these transitions 
are by imperceptible gradations. Sometimes these changes 
come early in life, sometimes late, sometimes not at all. 
Many adults are deficient in moral responsibility. The de- 
fects of birth are many. Heredity gives to personal bias an 
atmosphere of vice or virtue, in which motive and responsi- 
bility breathe and live. The individual, however, has to try 
all these by experience. If the heredity is good it may have 
to be adjusted to consciousness through experience. If the 
heredity is bad it has to be eliminated, and the good created. 
Many are thus freighted with double loads requiring a life- 
time, nay, perhaps many lives to get a fair start. Never till 
the will to live is subordinated to the will to do good has the 
individual really begun to live at all in the higher or divine 
nature. 

The physical brain belongs to the phenomenal life of 



146 A Study of Man. 

man. The brain is the organ through which on the one side 
consciousness manifests outwardly; and on the other side it 
is the medium through which all sensations and experiences 
of the outer world are presented to consciousness. 

In the objective world phenomena are wrought out on 
the basis of matter and force, and occur through motion. 
But beyond all this there are principles and laws by which 
nature builds, and certain forms or types to which she con- 
forms. Strictly speaking, man invents nothing; he has, how- 
ever, discovered many things, and all his so-called inventions 
are but the application of his discoveries of principles and 
laws in nature to the conditions of the phenomenal world. 
These laws on the one side, and every possible application of 
them on the other, already exist in the laboratory of nature. 
The discovery of laws and the application of principles de- 
pend on the accuracy and faithfulness with which 
man observes and imitates nature. There can no- 
where be found a mechanic, a chemist, or a builder 
like Dame Nature. It is after all the very simplicity 
of her handiwork that eludes us. Nature knows the secret of 
perpetual motion, but only as one member of an equation 
of which the other is eternal rest. In every snow-flake and 
crystal nature has squared the circle by absolute geometry. 
Man has never yet been able to utilize more than a fraction 
of the force everywhere diffused as gravity, heat, light and 
magnetism. Nature's forms are pure geometry; her com- 
pounds are made with absolute exactness; her revolutions 
are in obedience to immutable laws. Nature alone possesses 
the secret of the unit of form, the unit of mass, the unit of 
force, the unit of space, and the unit of time ; and she alone 
knows their common multiple. When man has wrested these 
secrets from nature then will he indeed be a master-builder. 
If there is a structure in nature in which all these principles 
are involved it is the human brain. These principles are 
represented in, reflected upon, and may be apprehended by 
the conscious intelligence through the agency of the brain 



The Nervous System. • 147 

and nervous mechanism. But in order that man may appre- 
hend these principles, the brain must be perfect and con- 
sciousness complete. In other words, the structure and 
function of the brain must reflect the ideal counterpart of 
the divine man, and consciousness must epitomize the two 
as one. If now we designate these powers and principles by 
which nature builds as ideas, thought is their approximate 
reflection or representation, their partial duplication. What 
we call human ideas are at best but grotesque and distorted 
caricatures of divine ideas. Our ideas are imperfect, con- 
tradictory, and therefore unstable, like shadows cast by a 
flickering light upon an ever-varying surface that exists 
only by virtue of unceasing change. Thought is the eva- 
nescent picture, the moving panorama thus produced and pre- 
sented to a poly-colored consciousness from the nature side 
of life. Thought is therefore phenomenal like sensation. 
If we try to control and detain thought, if we endeavor to 
fix the attention on any one point or on any one thing, we 
shall realize that it is indeed phenomenal in character. In 
the very act of controlling it, when successful, we have 
ceased to think; consciousness has withdrawn to the sub- 
jective side of being. Our thoughts come and go and come 
again, even against our will; they are never twice the same 
for a single instant, something is lacking, something added, 
ceaseless change, diversity, instability, unreality. Such is 
thought. If the external world is thus represented to con- 
sciousness, the internal world may also reach consciousness, 
but not through the physical brain. By thought, generic 
principles and innate ideas are converted into form by the 
brain pictures, and thus are nature's laws embodied in a re- 
creative center. The apprehension of these laws and prin- 
ciples in their relations and sequences is the reasoning fac- 
ulty; but this also involves consciousness. Logical thought 
differs from illogical thought as a perfect circle differs from 
an imperfect circle. Thought concerns sensations, ideas, re- 
lations and laws, in terms of matter, force, motion, space 



148 A Study of Man. 

and time, and represents these to consciousness in terms of 
experience. Innate ideas are the perfect embodiment of a 
law of nature with its secondary principles. Our ideas are 
more or less approximate principles that dimly discern the 
underlying law of nature. The laws of nature directly re- 
late to pure being beyond all conditions of space and time. 
Such principles as we discern in nature are the concensus 
of our varied and, necessarily, fragmentary experience, re- 
produced in thought and precipitated in consciousness. 
These innate ideas, laws and principles are derived directly 
from the subjective world; they are embodied in the phenom- 
enal world; they reach consciousness in man indirectly 
through experience and bodily feeling, and such experience 
by a law of attraction furnishes the basis for direct appre- 
hension from the subjective world. To apprehend a law of 
nature is to have emhodied it in our own nature through ex- 
perience. Hence are derived ideas which are but reflections 
of innate ideas. Eternity is obscured by -time, being be- 
clouded by existence, law producing phenomena, ever pres- 
ent principles lashed into flame by feeling. Man thus colors 
all he touches and creates an ideal world of his own which 
has elsewhere no existence, and bends every energy of his 
will to perpetuate the wor-k of his imagination. Just in pro- 
portion as man stands ready to relinquish this selfish world 
of his imagination for the world of truth and reality, does he 
come into possession of his birthright in the real world of 
being. That which everywhere stands in the way of this 
realization is man's ingrained selfishness, the habiliment of 
his personality derived from the animal world. 

It may thus be seen that thought is the moving panorama 
of the physical brain, mirroring the world of phenomena. 
Intuition bears the same relation to consciousness on the 
spiritual side of being that thought bears to the same con- 
sciousness on the material side of existence; but intuition 
like thought can have no relation to consciousness except 
through experience. Consciousness stands as the common 



The Nervous System. 149 

multiple of both thought and intuition; fo>r consciousness is 
the sole mediator in man between the natural and spiritual 
worlds — the bond of union that unites his phenomenal ex- 
istence in space and time to his real being in the eternal 
world. Real knowledge is an exact equation between the 
world of phenomena and the world of being. The teims of 
this equation are intellect and intuition, with consciousness 
as the sign of equality. The result of this solution is man's 
ideal world, the basis of which is his experience of the 
natural world of effects and the spiritual world of causes. 
In the genus homo man represents the intellect; woman, the 
intuition. Man reasons, woman feels. Intuition in man 
represents the female element;, reason in woman represents 
the male element; only the man- woman knows. 

Will is the sum of all individual energies ; it is that by which 
he is enabled to focalize these energies on a given point. 
Will is not mere stubbornness or contrariness. Will wheels 
the faculties into line and subordinates all minor tendencies 
to one supreme purpose. It is therefore the polarization of 
the entire being. This form of concentration of the will is 
true magic — not witchcraft, or sorcery, or necromancy, but 
the true Magus. It overcomes all obstacles and triumphs in 
the midst of apparent defeat, and thus accomplishes that 
which seems impossible. This exercise prolongs life, over- 
comes disease, and thus triumphs over even death itself. 
This exercise of the will is impossible so long as man is at 
war with nature or at war with himself, for he who exer- 
cises it must command his passions, appetites, faculties and 
infirmities, and must conquer even his environment and ap- 
parent disabilities. It means first self-conquest, and secondly 
such a use of his surroundings as will make them tributary 
to success, where to others without such will they mean de- 
feat and disaster. This is true magic. The handmaid of 
such a will is imagination. To will thus, one must be able 
to conceive of that which is beyond the details of hi,s expe- 
rience, but not beyond his intuitions or the principles of his 



150 A Study of Man. 

life. Will and imagination thus rise to the plane of genius. 
The individual thus endowed is a creator. The conceptions 
of his imagination, energized by his will, will prove more 
real and lasting than the things of sense and time. His 
temporal existence will involve from the world of being, 
and evolve in knowledge and power. This is but the appli- 
cation of the same principle that has all along enabled us to 
apprehend the unfolding of man's life on the various planes 
of existence. We see it here reaching toward higher planes 
and transcendent powers. To reach this plane requires a 
strong will, a vivid imagination, the subordination of all 
lower natures in man, and the inspiration derived from a di- 
vine or a diabolical purpose. Just here is the place where 
two ways meet, and man may become potent for good or evil. 
Motive now determines all. Either man will become a co- 
worker with God for the uplifting of mankind, or an em- 
bodied evil for man's destruction. The world has witnessed 
numerous examples of both these types. Here again the mo- 
tive turns on the principle of egotism or on that of altruism. 
The animal self of one's own personality is the humane all, 
through the divine individuality. The Holy Inquisition and 
the French Revolution illustrate the possibility of incarnate 
evil; while the list of martyrs rejoicing amid flames, and the 
unsung heroes and heroines of the cause of truth and right- 
eousness abundantly prove the possibility of the soul's tri- 
umph over all its foes. The servants of evil and the servants 
of truth have often thus stood face to face in the world's 
history, yet few historians have adequately comprehended 
the meaning of the situation or the elements involved, be- 
cause they have written from the planes of self-interest. 
The glimpses thus revealed of human nature at white heat 
go to its very foundations, and he who seeks to know him- 
self may thus learn from human kind. 

There has been very great progress in recent times, par- 
ticularly among western nations, in intellectual life and 
scientific discovery. Two causes have more than others 



The Nervous System. 151 

contributed to this result, namely, the discovery and ad- 
vancement of the art of printing, and the inductive method 
introduced by Sir Francis Bacon. Nothing can be gained, 
however, by deceiving ourselves as to the true character of 
this progress and its bearings on the real interests of man. 
These discoveries it is true have multiplied our resources 
and increased our power over nature, but they have in equal 
measure multiplied our wants. Necessities have given place 
to luxuries and natural modes of living to artificiality. In 
the meantime, the religious life of the people has been on the 
wane, and a puritanical consciousness has been replaced by 
a widespread covetousness. The race for riches and the lust 
for political power are fast trampling out the last vestiges 
of religious obligation. It is true that much of the former 
(religious sentiment was often but another name for super- 
stition, and that in many cases this has given place to en- 
lightenment and reason ; but the whole tendency of the times 
is to do away with all sacred things except perhaps human 
life and the rights of property; but even here our boasted 
civilization has generated another class, by no means small 
or insignificant, with whom the rights of person and prop- 
erty are by no means divine rights, but are held as subser- 
vient to so-called communism. In a certain sense this voice 
of communism is a blind feeling after the humane principle 
of altruism, engendered by helplessness and envy, and set on 
fire by the very material power and prosperity to which we 
have referred. Here again is good and evil face to face; 
rot as heretofore embodied in individuals, but as repre- 
sented by classes. Neither class is altogether good, nor al- 
together evil, but each represents a principle. The evil 
principle of selfish egotism is apparently triumphant, hence 
its complacence in the face of the gathering storm. Society 
is thus at war with itself. Capital and labor, the head and 
the hands of the body politic, are thus in hostile array. The 
balance of power is really though unconsciously with labor, 
and it will be a sad day for humanity when the beast in the 



152 A Study of Man. 

great unwashed, unfed masses realizes its power and organ- 
izes its strength. This terrible realization has been thus far 
prevented by the humane spirit which has found lodgment 
and large exercise in the middle class, who are neither rich 
nor poor, and who are as a rule better read and more char- 
itably inclined than any other class. This middle class in- 
clude the great bulk of the learned professions, those who 
mingle intimately with men and women, and who therefore 
know more of humanity as it is than any other, for this class 
are taught by that all-potent instructor, human sympathy. 
To these must be added artisans and the more intelligent 
and better paid laborers, both men and women. Here i.s the 
balance of power, but for which anarchy and desolation 
would long ago have come to reign. This class know and 
exercise their power continually. They are foremost in all 
good works. Drawing their philosophy of life from broad 
experience, possessed by a humane impulse, this class are the 
somewhat blind agents of the divine principle of altruism. 
Clinging to the ancient traditions in the face of intellectual 
doubt and denial, a contradiction to themselves, they never- 
theless feel blindly after the truth and serve it with willing 
hands. It is indeed true that among the more fortunate few 
there are many noble exceptions, and the notable increase 
of large bequests for purposes of charitable relief, and for 
educational purposes, is an encouraging sign of the times. 
Yet in the face of all this, the spectacle of a single .individ- 
ual holding in his grasp a hundred millions of money, and 
of corporations, and trusts, which are able to control legis- 
lation and to dictate the terms of trade, the price of food, as 
well as the compensation for labor, keeps alive the hatred 
and envy of the starving masses, improvident as they are, 
and unreasoning as they are likely to remain. Communism 
will not cure this widespread disease of our boasted civiliza- 
tion, but the spirit of altruism will. Nothing but this spirit 
in the middle class has been able to hold the disease in abey- 
ance. If the wealth of the world were equally divided among 



The Nervous System. 153 

its inhabitants today there would arise tomorrow the dis- 
tinction, of rich and poor, as well as the classes o>f capital 
and labor. The divine spirit of altruism lays a heavy hand 
on greed, and at the same time extends a helping hand to 
the needy and the ignorant, and even to the slothful and 
improvident. In the light of a divine humanity the greedy 
no less than the needy will be benefited by this touch of sym- 
pathy that makes the whole world akin. The suffering of 
poverty may be without crime and is often without envy — 
not so the embodiment of greed and all uncharitableness. 
1 would plead for these rather than for the hungry poor; 
they are more to be pitied here and now than any for mere 
poverty's sake; and the fact that they do not realize their 
crime only shows how deeply their higher nature has be- 
come obscured and degraded. Prosperity often tries the 
soul of man far more severely than adversity. Opportunities 
to do good employed for purposes of selfish pride and lust 
of gain can have but one effect, namely, to degrade and bru- 
talize. On the other hand, adversity is often the alembic 
that brings out the pure gold of a more noble manhood and 
womanhood. These are problems that no man can afford to 
disregard. These principles lie at the very foundation of 
human nature, and they cannot be ignored without annulling 
the very foundations of life itself, and setting at naught 
any rational meaning or possible benefit of individual life 
on earth. If human life has no higher meaning than animal 
greed and the survival of the fittest on the plane of the 
senses, then indeed is man like the beasts that perish. His 
god is his selfishness, and he had better curse it and die ! 

To return now from the body politic to the human body, 
it has been elsewhere shown that the building up of a com- 
plex tissue from simple living matter occurs through a proc- 
ess of polarization, tending thus to a fixation of form and 
definite waves of motion, with ebb and flow of the tide of life 
from surface to center, and from center to surface. ]t was 
also shown how the center of life thus posited becomes also a 



154 A Study of Man. 

center of consciousness. This universal tendency to polar- 
ization presupposes a universal substance, magnetism, lying 
back of all forms and beneath all matter. Progressive differ- 
entiation of living substance tending to the fixation of form 
is from first to last a necrosis, or progressive death of living 
f matter. Thus that relative fixation of form with definite 
function, called muscle, nerve, gland and the like, slowly but 
surely destroys that mobility and irritability of living matter 
which specially characterizes unformed protoplasm. Molec- 
ular death is therefore the concomitant of life. The en- 
dowment .of life as a fixed condition belongs to no matter. 
Progressive endowment of life and progressive death — 
matter becoming alive, and matter becoming dead — are the 
conditions of all material substances constituting the animal 
body or the human form. Here may be seen the principle 
of death and of rejuvenescence pertaining to the tissues as 
to the entire body and life of man. In this process of trans- 
formation whereby protoplasm takes on the form and func- 
tion of tissue and organ there is a. reserved quantity at any 
given time of matter endowed with life not thus transformed. 
This enables the individual to undergo long fasts, and to en- 
dure wasting diseases and still recuperate. This reserve of 
living matter is moreover greatly fortified by the presence 
of fatty substances rich in carbon, by the oxidation of which 
the temperature of the body is maintained. This living 
matter is found in large quantities floating in the blood- 
vessels and in the lymphatics in which it is specially 
elaborated. All problems of nutrition relate directly to the 
formation of these living colloids and their transformation 
into tissue in the process of growth and repair. In youth 
the surplus of living matter is large and its transformation 
rapid. In old age the quantity is relatively small and its 
transformation slow. In age the form of the tissues has 
become more fixed ; the contour of the body is more angular ; 
polarization pushes the entire bodily organism toward crys- 
tallization. The bodily juices dry up, mobility gradually 



The Nervous System. 155 

ceases within and without, and molecular death merges into 
corporeal death, and the matter of life removes to the lower 
plane of chemism and decomposition. 

If now we consider the untransformed living matter of 
the body en masse, the colloids floating in the blood-vessels, 
lymphatics, and the nuclei of all tissue cells, we shall get 
the idea of a colloidal body of living matter within the body 
of tissues and organs. We have frequently referred to the 
impressibility of the individual colloids of living matter, 
their sensitiveness to all impressions and their readiness to 
take on specific forms, and the ease with which they are 
transformed into tissues having relatively fixed forms. This 
aggregation of living colloids extending throughout the 
physical or tissue-body, and anchored in -the very center of 
every microscopic tissue cell, is the only substance to which 
life directly adheres, and may be conceived as the animal 
soul, the pure psychic body, the vehicle of sense. This 
psychic body anchored thus in the center of every living cell 
constitutes an almost innumerable series of centers of life, 
dominated by the larger polarities of the body, which polar- 
ities are maintained by the 'circulation of the blood, the cir- 
culation being maintained by respiration. Withdraw from 
any tissue cell the nucleus of living matter and the cell dies. 
Whenever the body as a whole dies the life departs from the 
psychic body, but the tissues preserve their form for a con- 
siderable time, and the form of the tissues may be artificially 
preserved for a long time, though every vestige of their 
function in life dapar.ts at death. Even the artificial con- 
traction of muscle under galvanic stimulation is no more 
than an illustration of a mechanical principle, and a demon- 
stration at best of the principle of magnetic polarization so 
potent in life. This colloidal psychic body is thus seen as the 
physical and no less as the vital basis of all organisms, the 
a ery web and woof of life, but it cannot of itself determine 
any bodily form or function. These are impressed upon it 
from without, or evolved from within. We must not over- 



156 A Study of Man. 

look the fact that the first changes in embryonic life begin 
with this same proteus; nor that the germ, the fertilization 
of which is the beginning of development, in positing a cen- 
ter of life, contains a nucleus of protoplasm. We must also 
lemember that the earliest manifestation of a developing life 
center is its power to transform and replenish its store of 
protoplasm. In a previous section it has been shown that 
proteus, with its magnetic endowment, or tendency to polar- 
ization, lies nearest the ether, and that it readily qualifies 
in all outward forms of life. The colloidal body then h most 
directly related to the subjective world. It is that substance 
which most directly receives all impressions coming from the 
unseen world of causes and ideal forms. If this psychic or 
colloidal body may be thus imagined to act as a whole and 
to receive impressions as any nerve center or sensory area 
receives them, such impressions have only to be transmitted 
to consciousness in order to constitute a valid experience. 
Let us call this function the psychic sense, or direct physico- 
magnetic impression. All these terms are often used, and in 
a very illogical and contradictory manner, without any at- 
tempt to locate or define them. This psychic body is not the 
human soul, but the vehicle of the soul, as the tissue-body 
is the vehicle of the psychic body. We are dealing with ma- 
terial substances and psychic forces, and for the present 
leaving out of account that great central fact, consciousness, 
and its next development, self-consciousness, and the rela- 
tions of these to all physiological and psychological activity. 
The psychic body bears as definite relations to consciousness 
in all its forms and degrees on the subjective side of being 
as does the tissue-body on the objective side; for conscious- 
ness stands in the center of these two worlds as represented 
in man. The psychic body is the reservoir of magnetic power 
in man. This reservoir has a definite center of its own. 
This center is manifested as sex. The great solar plexus 
may be called the sympathetic brain of the psychic body, 
fortified by the heart and lungs. So far as the physical ele- 



The Nervous System. 157 

merits and forces of creative power in man are concerned 
they are thus located and centered. These furnish the ele- 
ments of life, but they do not give it ideal form and central 
-endowment. These endowments are subjective, and are in- 
volved from higher planes. Sensibility and diffused con- 
sciousness belong to the psychic body. It is the vehicle of 
desire, appetite, lust and passion. Even the lower animals 
possess in addition to the psychic body a center of life and 
consciousness, as they are rudimentary-human. Man pos- 
sesses self-consciousness, as he is rudimentary-divine. We 
have already shown how as life progresses in concrete de- 
grees the higher nature overtops the lower, and the lower 
nature still adheres in the higher in the endless chain of 
existence. 

If now we seek illustrations of the psychic sense we are 
-overwhelmed with the magnitude and number of such illus- 
trations. They include the whole body of facts in animal 
magnetism, taking into account the abeyance and dominance 
of will and the shifting of consciousness. Cerebral uncon- 
sciousness, even when memory is blotted out as by chloro- 
form, leaves the sex-center of the psychic body wide awake 
and often abnormally active. So also deep sleep that blots 
out all outward consciousness leaves the psychic center un- 
affected, and still active. The whole record of experiments 
in hypnotism is directly related to the psychic body, and even 
"here memory may be impressed independent of ordinarv con- 
sciousness. The psychic body has a memory and conscious- 
ness of its own relatively independent of the brain and self- 
consciousness. On the other hand the phenomena of clair- 
voyance and clair-audience, which include consciousness, 
and are related to the subjective world, are also related to the 
psychic body and its functions. The bodily avenues of sense 
are well defined and impressions from the outer world reach 
consciousness through these, but in rare instances, where 
these bodily avenues are wanting or obstructed, there is in- 



158 A Study of Man. 

disputable evidence that impressions from the outer world 
reach consciousness through other channels. The psychic 
body as the avenue for subjective impressions now acts also 
in conveying objective impressions to the sensorium. Even 
as I write the case of little Helen Keller comes under my no- 
tice, through an article by Sallie Joy White in Wide Awake, 
March 1, 1887: "Miss Sullivan began her duties as teacher 
to little Helen Keller, who, although blind, deaf and dumb, 
was destined, under her training, to become so great a won- 
der that scientific men from Europe, as well as this country, 
would study her as a real intellectual phenomenon. 

"Miss Sullivan found her pupil a bright, well-grown 
girl of nearly seven years of age, with ,a clear complexion 
and pretty brown hair. She was quick and graceful, with 
a merry laugh, and fond of romping with other children. 
You wonder, don't you, how she can run about and play? 
Well, she will play tag, and have as great a frolic about it 
as any child you ever saw. She feels the vibrations of the 
ground by her feet, and so knows just which way to go, 
and what to avoid. Indeed, her sense of movement is acute, 
and she tells often about going to church 'to hear the organ 
play.' She knows when it is being played, in the same way 
that she can tell which way to run in the game of tag. The 
floor vibrates and thus conveys to her the knowledge of what 
is being done. It cannot be possible that she gets any real 
idea of sound in this way, although she must get the rhyth- 
mic flow of the music. How much she is able to realize of 
its beauty and harmony we never will know, but there must 
be some charm about it, for she is fond of it. 

"Would you think that without the ability to hear the 
music, or to see the steps, she could learn to dance? It 
doesn't seem possible, does it? And yet she has learned the 
art; she was taught by one of her little companions. She 
likes always to do what the other children do, and as they 
were dancing one day she wanted to join them. The little 
friend took her hand and tried to make her keep time with 



The Nervous System. 159 

her in the step; but she could not manage it. Suddenly, as 
swift as thought, for with this wonderful child to think and 
to act are simultaneous, she slid to the floor, and motioning 
the little girl to go on with her dancing, she felt the motion 
of her feet and the bending of the knee. In a moment she 
was on her feet again, dancing merrily; she had caught the 
spirit of the motion through her little fingers. And now 
dancing is her. favorite diversion. 

"It is doubtful whether anyone in possession of eyesight 
and hearing can arrive at little Helen's acuteness of touch 
and sensitiveness to motion. We depend on our eyes and 
ears, and do not call our other senses into full activity, and 
these other senses will best be studied in persons like little 
Helen Keller. She can distinguish between puppies of the 
same litter; and since she has been taught to spell she will 
spell the name of each one as soon as she touches him. Her 
sense of smell is so keen that she will recognize different 
soses by their fragrance, and by the same sense she can 
separate her own clothes from those which belong to others. 
She knows if anyone near her is sad. Seldom will physical 
pain make her cry, but she will discover quickly if a friend 
is hurt, or ill, or grieved by her conduct, and this knowledge 
will make her weep bitterly. 

"Mr. Anagnos says that her wonderful faculties are mat- 
ters beyond us. The ideas of death and burial have never 
been communicated to her; but, when taken into> a ceme- 
tery, on account of some beautiful flowers there she grew 
pale and grave, and put her little hands upon her teacher's 
eyes and her mother's, and spelled out, 'cry, cry/ and her 
own eyes filled with tears. 

"Her teacher says that one day when her brother was 
coming toward them as they were walking, Helen knew it, 
spelled his name repeatedly, and started in the right direction 
to meet him. She gives the names of people she meets walk- 
ing or riding as soon as their presence is recognized. Often 
when she is about to make known some plan the child will 



160 A Study of Man. 

anticipate her and spell out the plan about to be unfolded. 
Whether this be the action of some sharpened sense already 
known to us and named, or the awaking and working of 
some sense not understood, it is at least an interesting mat- 
ter for study." 

Such cases are by no means uncommon, though the prin- 
ciple under consideration is in the case of Helen Keller il- 
lustrated in an unusual degree. To this class belong the 
Seeress of Prevorst, Heinrich Yung-Stilling, the friend of 
Goethe, the Drummer Boy of Tedworth, Angelique Cottin, 
Mollie Fancher of Brooklyn, and thousands of others, all 
differing in detail of manifestation but not in general prin- 
ciple, thus demonstrating the existence of the psychic sense. 
It is through this psychic sense that animals are enabled 
to follow a trail, and the same power has been witnessed in 
certain human beings, thus showing it to partake of physical 
qualities capable of transmission to both animate and inani- 
mate objects. Invisible emanations preserving the distinct 
personal attributes are thus associated with the psychic 
sense, helping to constitute the psychic body. This psychic 
body, composed of living matter, anchored in the center of 
every tissue cell of the human body, and extending thus to 
every organ and to the utmost bounds of the physical struc- 
ture, is the medium between the physical structure and the 
subjective world of ideal forms and all-pervading principles. 
In the ovum the nucleus of living matter receives the im- 
press of the human likeness, and the potential center of life 
thus posited begins to involve the human form, as it evolves 
the physical body. The developing germ now passes rapidly 
and in succession over the various planes of life, marked in 
the outer world as distinct species. These planes are spe- 
cially marked by the well-known stages of nutrition, as cell- 
nutrition, tuft-nutrition, placental nutrition, and finally as 
mammal nutrition. All this has been referred to in other 
connections. Here may be noted the broader relations at 
which we have arrived. The severance of the cord at birth. 



The Nervous System. 161 

marks the end of placental nutrition, and the wonderful 
changes in the circulation of the blood that then occur, 
and the independent respiratory process that then 
begins, mark an important era in the individual life. 
The human being rises at once to a higher plane of life. A 
very careful study of these changes and the just apprehen- 
sion of their relation to each other and to conscious life 
will go far toward explaining that great subsequent change 
called death. The physical body thereafter decomposes, as 
does the placenta. The incoming and outgoing tide of air is 
cut off as effectually as is the tide of blood in the umbilical 
cord. If even as great a change occurs in the latter case as 
in the former, the vehicle of consciousness shifting now to 
the subjective plane enters on a new life, as definitely re- 
lated to the respiratory life as that was to the placental, and 
as directly to be inferred from the preceding respiratory as 
that from the placental. The law of analogy is here the 
great interpreter, discerning from the present both that 
which has been and that which will be. Consciousness is 
posited as a center in the center of life of the germ. To this 
center of life endowed with the fact of consciousness, and 
impressed with the human form or idea, the waves of in- 
volving or evolving force come and go as to a focus. All 
experience, that is, all sensation and feeling, all motor im- 
pressions, the concensus of all bodily changes, are thus 
focused upon the conscious center of life. This center 
therefore expands, its channels deepen, as it epitomizes the 
whole of the unfolding life. The embryo when completely 
developed is dissevered from its matrix and finally stands 
alone — a living, conscious, self-centered organism, belong- 
ing equally as to fact, but not in degree, to two worlds, the 
natural and the spiritual, the objective and the subjective. 
The object is not here to establish or maintain the existence 
of the human soul, for that must remain with every individ- 
ual a matter of consciousness to be demonstrated by experi- 
ence. The object is rather to show the real nature of man 
as he is, proceeding from a physico-vital plane, and suggest- 



162 A Study of Man. 

ing certain coherent lines of investigation, and certain log- 
ical analogies that necessarily arise in our pursuit of truth. 
It is true that these methods point in the opposite direction 
irom spiritual nihilism, and necessitate further analogies, 
but these may justly be left to each individual to determine 
for himself. What is most urgently needed is a better knowl- 
edge of man as he is, here and now, in order that he may 
make the very highest and best use of present opportunities. 
Otiier-worldliness often leads to the neglect of these oppor- 
tunities equally with worldliness. If men and women could 
be made to realize that they are here and now living in both 
the natural and the spiritual worlds, and if they can be made 
to see that through conscious experience they may deter- 
mine their own position in the scale of being and the help- 
fulness that they may extend to others, the efficiency of hu- 
man life will be largely increased. The present object is 
therefore to point out these possibilities and to suggest 
methods by which they may be realized. To most persons 
interested in these studies science is discouraging, philosophy 
bewildering, and theology mystifying, and, if they find belief 
no longer satisfying, the .result is to disarm the individual 
of that real zest in life that comes only from a well-defined 
purpose enthusiastically pursued. For lack of this zest in 
life, apathy settles upon the soul like mildew upon matter, 
and eats out its crowning glory. A melancholy pessimist, or 
/a scoffing materialist, is the result — conditions less desirable 
because more demoralizing than blind faith or even ignorant 
superstition. These habits of thought are not readily broken 
up. The mind may become dissipated and demoralized 
through vicious habits of thought, just as the body does 
through vicious habits of life. In fact there is no separating 
body and mind in this regard. The law of habit equally gov- 
erns as it underlies both body and mind. We have already 
shown that all transmission of energy in a definite diiection 
■tends to the fixation of form, and again that all fixation of 
form predetermines the mode of transmission and the form 
of energy. All living matter and all living tissue both pos- 



The Nervous System. 163 

sess and transmit energy. The transmission of energy fol- 
lows the line of least resistance ; that is, it goes most readily 
where it has gone before. The ultimatum is the fixation of 
specific form, and the transmission of energy — waves of mo- 
tion — without resistanoe. The brain is a compound register- 
ing ganglion. As age advances registration gradually 
ceases, and transmission of energy under acquired habit or 
fixed forms only remains. The physical basis of memory 
thus finally obliterates memory itself, for as the cerebral 
habit becomes fixed and precludes all further impression, 
progressive molecular death, or natural decay obliterates 
earlier impressions, till finally only the essence of impres- 
sions remains as precipitated by experience in consciousness. 
Finally even consciousness wanes and gives place to senile 
imbecility. The senso-motor mechanism on the one side 
bears a definite relation to the psycho-mental on the other. 
All motions, sensations, feelings and thoughts are definitely 
related to psychic structure; and any repetition of impulse 
in any of these lines of experience tends to diminish resist- 
ance, and to facilitate very greatly a repetition of the similar 
impulse, or in other words, to establish the habit. The range 
of activities that may thus become automatic is very great. 
Acts performed at first with difficulty, with concentration of 
mind, and with energy of will, are not only finally performed 
without effort, but are performed unconsciously, and while 
the mind is concentrated on other things. What may be 
called natural organic volition is now supplemented by ac- 
quired or artificial volition. In the exercise of muscle, which 
up to a certain point promotes development, there is a defi- 
nite relation between force and mass, between energy and 
resistance. In the more delicate muscular manipulations re- 
quiring a wide range of activities, differentiation still tends 
to automatism. Automatism is therefore directly related to 
differentiation, and inversely related to mass. The cessation 
of the process of differentiation is the fixation of habit. We 
have now derived the elements with which to determine the 
laws of habit in regard to mental processes. The budding 



164 A Study of Man. 

up of thie brain structure and the exercise of its normal 
function have their root in the general principles of physiol- 
ogy. The form of tissue, the relations of parts, and the 
method of action are determined by the laws of mathematics, 
thus determining both symmetry and harmony. This com- 
plex structure, the human brain, like all other tissues, is in 
constant need of rejuvenescence, and hence both normal 
and abnormal forms are repeated and perpetuated. A nor- 
mally-developed healthy brain has within itself, and through 
its natural exercise, a power and perpetuity but little known 
and seldom seen. On the other hand, just as a bridge or 
building erected in disregard of the principles of mechanics 
— weight, tension and the strength of material — contains 
within itself the elements of its own destruction beyond th.; 
encroachments of time and natural decay, and is liable to 
fall at any time by its own weight, or by a slight strain such 
as a well-constructed edifice could bear with safety; so it is 
with that vital mechanism, the human brain. Evil thoughts 
and all vicious mental states overcome resistance, and mold 
the structure till it repeats automatically the evil, as it re- 
peats the good impulse. Every evil impulse thus repeated 
tends from the first to disharmony and to disease of the en- 
tire structure, and finally results in ruin. It is physiologically 
true, that "the wages of sin is death." The law of habit has 
its root in the anatomy of the body, of which the brain is a 
part; its motor power is in the physiology of nutrition and 
circulation; its theater of activity is in the protean living 
matter; the principle of its activity lies in polarization; its 
forms and relations are in the principles of mathematics, and 
the key to its interpretation is analogy. 

As we ascend from the general psychological plane 
toward the center of being we encounter two principles, 
namely, will and desire. Will is to the mind what vitality is 
to the body, namely, the sum of all its energy. Desire is the 
directing agency of mind and body, as appetite or hunger is 
the directing agency of the vital body. What we call motive 
gives color to will, desire and appetite, as it relates all these 



The Nervous System. 165, 

to results and to other individuals. Motive is therefore re- 
lated to self-consciousness, the attribute of the reasoning 
mind. Consider, for example, that manifestation of desire 
known as lust. Desire through the imagination pictures to 
the mind, and through vitality inflames the blood in antici- 
pation of the coveted enjoyment. The will is chained to 
vitality, self-consciousness is obscured, and mere psychic 
sense is centered in the sexual center of life. Thus the ani- 
mal ego reigns supreme. With every repetition of this alle- 
giance to lust resistance decreases, and the imagination re- 
vels in its new creation till the habit of both mind and body 
conform to the animal ideal. Many persons fail to distin- 
guish between this passion and love. These two principles 
have not only nothing in common, but they are the direct 
antipodes of each other. Lust seeks all for self, and merci- 
lessly devours. Love is benefioent, and seeks another's good. 
In seeking all for self, lust not only destroys its victims and 
destroys itself, but destroys its possessor. There is a road by 
which human beings may lose their humanity and descend, 
body and soul, to the plane of the brutes. Consciousness de- 
scends from the higher self, to the sex-center of the psychic 
body or animal soul, and our hospitals and insane asylums 
are filled with these victims of lust, where insanity, imbe- 
cility and drivelling idiocy protest in the name of humanity 
at the disregard of nature's plainest laws. Those who really 
know human nature through any wide experience directed 
by sincere desire for the truth know that, upon a correct 
knowledge of the meaning of sex, and the true relations of 
the sexes, depend the happiness and well-being of the human 
race, more than upon anything else in its present stage of 
development. And yet those who have learned the truth in 
these regards cannot reveal it because of the predominance 
in the great bulk of humanity of the animal ego over the di- 
vinely human, the triumph of the selfish over the humane, of 
lust over love. The larger liberty and prophetic enfranchise- 
ment of woman can only redeem the human race and lift 
even man himself into his divine birthright. The pure love 



166 A Study of Man. 

nature is strong in every true woman, and she will thus ren- 
der good for evil in measure altogether divine. Here lies 
the secret of happy homes, of healthy and healthful human 
beings, of divinely inspired human souls. Love is but an- 
other name for that spirit of altruism which rises above the 
animal plane, and enables human beings to conquer self and 
give place to the divine. This is the one principle that in all 
its varied applications elevates man above the brute. Ani- 
mal egotism has deluged the world with blood in the name 
of ambition, which is lust for power. Animal egotism has 
trampled down the finer sensibilities of the soul in its lust 
tor fame. Animal egotism has filled the world with poverty 
and woe in its lust for gold ; and animal egotism has degraded 
woman in every age under the sacred name of love; and the 
great mass of mankind has yet to learn this lesson: "He 
alone can truly possess the pleasure of love who has con- 
quered the love of pleasure." 

One law underlies the entire nature of man; it is the 
universal law of duality, and its final expression in human 
beings is sex in its highest and purest relations, under the 
divine inspiration of love. Under this law the growth of al- 
truism, where the lower powers of man's nature are subor- 
dinated to the higher, tends to self-preservation, health, hap- 
piness, and long life, and beyond all this it lays the founda- 
tion for the unfolding of still higher faculties in man, as 
well as for his final supreme enlightenment as a spiritual 
being evolved from the human plane. The disobedience of 
this higher law, where man's higher powers are subordi- 
nated to the animal passions, inevitably tends to disease and 
death. We cannot fail from these considerations to deduce 
a physical basis for a natural code of moral ethics, justified 
by every known principle of physiological science and forti- 
fied by the lessons of experience. The human body and the 
laws of life thus contain a divine revelation in perfect ac- 
cord with that other revelation which declares that the 
"wages of sin is death," and that righteousness hath the 
gift of life forever more. 



CHAPTER XI. 



CONSCIOUSNESS. 



The terra incognita of modern physical science is con- 
sciousness. This fact is often realized, but instead of going 
seriously to work to study the relations and different states 
and conditions of consciousness, the foolish attempt is re- 
peated again and again of trying to fit consciousness to 
phenomena as an attribute of matter. Whenever the changes 
arising in the conditions and manifestations of consciousness 
have been carefully noted and critically compared, such ob- 
servation and comparison have led to the conclusion that 
consciousness is the prime factor in all individual experi- 
ence, and by no means confined to the senso-motor mechan- 
ism of the human brain. It is true that in one of its modes 
consciousness bears a definite relation to the brain and all 
mental processes that directly relate to the external world of 
phenomena. In moments of so-called abstraction, when, as 
often occurs, the individual is in a deep study, the phenom- 
enal world is largely shut off from consciousness; the phys- 
ical senses are dormant, and in this condition the individual 
enters the border-land of an ideal world. All great artists, 
poets and painters who possess real genius thus derive their 
inspirations. These, however, usually get but glimpses cf the 
real world of ideal forms and all-pervading principles, yet 
enough oftentimes to immortalize their names. The bodily 
avenues between the external world and consciousness are 
many. Consciousness is one. Consciousness therefore is 
the vehicle of the ego. In its existence consciousness may 
be independent of all bodily sense or mental condition, 

fi6 7 ) 



1 68 A Study of Man. 

though dependent on these for its external manifestation. 
Through these avenues and relations the conscious ego 
comes into definite relations to a phenomenal existence, to 
the things of sense and time; and by analogy something may 
be inferred of the nature of consciousness from its outward 
manifestation. When once it is understood, however, that 
through its relations to the brain and sensory ganglia con- 
sciousness manifests in but one of numerous forms, analo- 
gies drawn from this one form alone will no longer be re- 
garded as final, even where they are logically so drawn. 
Complete self-consciousness on any plane is impossible ex- 
cept where the higher faculties in man control the lower. 
Until this condition is achieved the ego can control neither 
the thoughts nor the acts of its complex environment. In 
other words, complete self-consciousness implies complete 
self-control. The individual is then enabled to concentrate 
the mind upon a given object and to exclude all others. 
Whenever this condition is fairly approximated the individ- 
ual has already learned that there are other states of con- 
sciousness, and can begin to enter them at will. The range 
of individual experience which has elsewhere been shown to 
be the basis of all knowledge is thus broadened immensely, 
and even the nature and value of ordinary experience on the 
physical plane can now for the first time be estimated, be- 
cause it is brought into relations of comparison with expe- 
rience on other planes. It may thus be seen how important 
is the relation that consciousness bears to the bodily mechan- 
ism, and how unwise it is to mistake the varying mental 
states occurring under one form of consciousness for the 
variation in the modes of consciousness itself, with some of 
which the mind, as a function of the physical brain, has lit- 
tle if anything to do. It has more than once been shown in 
these pages that consciousness is not only the central fact 
in man, but that it is thus the medium between the objective 
and subjective worlds. If this be true, then consciousness 
is on one side related to the universal ether from which pro- 



Consciousness. 169 

ceed all ideal forms, and in which are precipitated all created 
things, the essence of these thus returning to the original 
source whence they emanated. Newton's phrase, Sensorium 
Dei, the organ of divine consciousness, as applied to <the 
ether, thus becomes intelligible. The importance of the 
conception that consciousness on the one side is as defi- 
nitely and as naturally related to this "organ of divine con- 
sciousness" as on the other side it is related to the things 
of sense and time cannot be overlooked; for such a concept 
goes far toward explaining the nature of man and his true 
relations to existence. There is nothing more remarkable 
in the conceptions of man today than the fact that he gen- 
erally supposes that his life proceeds outwardly only, on the 
physical plane, and that his thoughts and reflections concern 
only those outward experiences. It is as though man stood 
with his back to a blank wall and his whole nature and life 
proceeded thence in one direction. True it is that he recog- 
nizes vague thoughts and intense longings regarding the be- 
yond, and his imagination pictures the habitations of the 
blessed with palm trees and crystal streams flowing from de- 
lectable mountains, but these are but reflections of earth-life 
divested of sorrow and pain and yet conditioned in sense and 
time. When once it is clearly seen that the brain and die 
whole process of thought, together with the avenues of sense, 
are the relations of consciousness to the outer world alone, 
and that not thought, but consciousness is the prime factor 
in individual life, then the blank wall disappears, and the 
undiscovered country looms up before us, obscured by clouds 
and mists, but no longer an undiscovered world, though still 
unexplored. If instead of jumping the gulf between the 
present and the future, and discussing the immortality of the 
soul, man would carefully consider the question as to 
whether he has a soul, and its nature and conditions here 
and now, a great step would be gained, not only in knowl- 
edge of the soul, but as to the conditions of its growth and 
enlightenment. This knowledge will dawn upon the human 



170 A Study of Man. 

understanding just in proportion as man is enabled to appre- 
hend the relations and manifestations of consciousness. 
Whenever it is clearly recognized that all our knowledge 
comes by experience, and whenever the relations of the ex- 
ternal world through these experiences are clearly dis- 
cerned, it will also be discovered that we are conscious of 
experiences beyond the phenomenal world of sense and time, 
and independent of the sensory ganglia and the thinking 
brain. This line of investigation will render clearly appre- 
hensible the existence of a supra-sensible or subjective world 
of being. Judging then by the nature and relations, rather 
than by the extent of our subjective experiences, we shall be 
able logically to arrive at the further conclusion that, from 
the very nature of things, this subjective world is the very 
counterpart of the objective world of sense and time. We 
shall next be able to locate consciousness as related to these 
two worlds, and thus to locate our two sets of experiences, 
and to make one set a test of the other through the laws of 
analogy and correspondence. By this time we shall have 
discovered that we have actually begun the exploration of 
the undiscovered realm, and placed it beyond the possibility 
of time and sense to reconstruct for us the old stone wall at 
our backs. Man may thus begin to know himself. Suppose 
that it be assumed that man has an immortal soul that still 
lives beyond the bounds of time; that indeed is not the all- 
important question. Suppose that the soul lives hereafter, 
but that memory is blotted out, and that we have there no 
recollection of anything that occurred to us here. This 
would practically be annihilation. The old ego in its new 
form would be for us a new creation, and we would be blotted 
out. It is a matter of common experience that memory fails 
us. The events of yesterday not only are forgotten today, 
but there comes a time in the encroachment of age when all 
records of past events are blotted out, and when new impres- 
sions are well-nigh impossible. Consciousness, and not 
memory, is the human factor that remains, even in the face 



Consciousness. 171 

of senile imbecility. Again admitting the continuance of the 
individual soul beyond the gates of death, the prime ques- 
tion is : Will it preserve self-consciousness ? Suppose now 
that we have discovered the fact of consciousness on the 
subjective plane while in this present life, and while inhab- 
iting a physical body. If we have clearly apprehended the 
fact that consciousness is the immediate vehicle of the in- 
dividual ego, and that thought is only the channel of com- 
munication between consciousness and the external world, 
and if we have discovered that consciousness depends on 
thought, and brain, and sense, and muscle, for its external 
manifestation, but not for its existence, we are already iff! 
the way of determining both the fact and the conditions of 
manifestation of another form of consciousness from that of 
objective life. Putting the problem in this form the unknown 
is not necessarily the unknowable; the undiscovered is not 
necessarily the undiscoverable. The measure of man's ex- 
istence on the earthly plane of life is determined by his ex- 
perience on that plane; but if the conscious center of man's 
life is posited at the center between two worlds and natu- 
rally open to both, then it follows that at any time the 
measure of his existence on the subjective plane is also de- 
termined by his experience on that plane. If the cycle of 
experience of the conscious ego be rounded up by wide and 
co-ordinate experience on both planes, consciousness may be 
imagined to grasp not only greater depths, but to approxi- 
mate even the details of experience, and so to approximate 
what we understand as memory. On the other hand, if one's 
experience here concerns almost exclusively the objective 
plane, if the life of the individual is immersed in sense, and 
anchored to self, thus ignoring divine altruism and the voice 
of the higher self, it must be seen to pertain to the things 
that perish, and which do not follow the ego after the death 
of the body to the subjective plane. If again we imagine 
the cycle' of experience to be rounded up, the ego would be 
left in darkness, there could be no self-consciousness on the 



172 A Study of Man. 

subjective plane, self-consciousness having displayed itself 
previously so largely in the things that no longer exist. If 
these analogies of consciousness he correctly drawn, they 
serve to explain why, if the doctrine of re-incarnation be 
true, no memory of past lives is retained by the ego after 
the lapse of ages and repeated incarnations, the ego having 
shifted from plane to plane. The extent in which this doc- 
trine of re-incarnation has been held in all ages down to the 
present time, and even by the fathers and later dignitaries 
of the Christian church is generally overlooked. We are at 
present, however, concerned only with the present life, and 
the logical analogies of present experience. These questions 
are in no sense transcendental, but are the most practical 
and sensible that the human mind can suggest, and more than 
all others concern the present life and the best interests of 
man. The doctrine of rewards and punishments is but a 
childish and superstitious view of the divine principle of 
justice, that metes to every one according to the deeds done 
in the body, according to the thoughts of the mind, and the 
ideals that inspire the individual life. Justice is that silent 
but all-potent law that veins the leaf and crystallizes the 
snow-flake by exact measure and perfect equilibrium. "The 
wicked obey the law through fear; the wise keep the law 
through knowledge." One may be poor and despised by the 
world, without fame or power, yet if his soul be open to the 
voice of the needy and the cry of distress, if his life be un- 
selfish and he be considerate toward others, he is rich indeed. 
He may be indifferent as to either food or raiment and yet 
be clean both within and without. He may have little to 
give, and yet be helpful and inspiring, and blessings may 
follow his footsteps like his own shadow on a summer day. 
Such an one is in the world, but not of it. He is conscious 
of the subjective plane of being, and his experience extends 
to the other world even while in the body. The ego en- 
throned in his consciousness is lifted to serener heights, and 
for him there is no undiscovered clime. Of old it was writ- 



Consciousness. 173 

■ten : "He that is dead to the world is alive to God." Nothing 
so bars the soul from the subjective world as selfishness. The 
thoroughly selfish person is like a blind horse in a bark-mill ; 
his experience and his vision are hedged about by his nar- 
row circle, and he wears continually the channels of self 
deeper at every round. This is not a mere matter of senti- 
ment, nor is it merely a matter of religion which so many 
now-a-days treat with scorn ; it is a matter as directly deter- 
mined by physiological law as is the beating of the heart, 
or the development and function of the brain. 

Individuals are born with widely different natural en- 
dowments. Education cannot repair the defects of birth, but 
the determined effort of the will of the individual cannot 
only repair these defects, but it can take advantage of every 
hereditary trait, whether good or bad, and transform it to 
use and beneficence. There are three conditions of conscious- 
ness in ordinary daily experience: that of ordinary wakeful- 
ness, that of dreamful sleep, and that of dreamless sleep. 
We have already shown that not memory but consciousness 
is the all-potent factor in man. Consciousness as a fact re- 
turns to the individual, as well as memory, after deep sleep. 
Everyone will admit that in sleep, where dreams occur, con- 
sciousness is on a different plane, or under different condi- 
tions from the waking state, and memory brings into the 
waking state the subject and the varied experiences of 
dreams. After dreamless sleep memory may bring nothing 
back from the subjective world, but it resumes the thread of 
life just where it was dropped before unconsciousness came 
on. Now what becomes of consciousness during dreamless 
slumber? Either it continues or it does not. If it continues 
then it must simply be on another plane and Under different 
conditions, at least so far as thought and memory are con- 
cerned, for the gap is between consciousness and memory 
in relation to thought. If on the other hand consciousness 
is blotted out and re-created every time we enter dreamless 
.sleep, it could not be that both consciousness and memory, 



174 A Study of Man. 

both new creations, at once take up the thread of life just 
where they dropped it, and resume the even tenor of their 
way as though nothing had happened. Nature never does 
things m that way. Her adjustments require time, her de- 
velopments and all her varied relations are slow growths. 
Both consciousness and memory have grown and expanded 
from .the original germ. The true philosophy of dreams is 
then a problem in the conditions of consciousness, while we 
may fairly assume that consciousness still persists in dream- 
less sleep, though under changed conditions. Nothing is 
more common in ordinary life than the shifting of the planes 
of consciousness. Take for example the action of anaesthet- 
ics, chloroform changes the consciousness of the real ego. 
The individual cannot be called strictly unconscious. He is 
not conscious in the ordinary way. He suffers no pain, and 
retains no recollection of what occurs while under the in- 
fluence of the anaesthetic, but the organic consciousness re- 
mains undisturbed. Muscular motion may occur, but with- 
out co-ordination. The cerebrum, cerebellum and sensory 
ganglia are unconscious in dreamless sleep; the medulla, 
spinal cord, solar-plexus and the sexual-area are wide awake 
and sometimes these are super-sensitive. The light of self- 
consciousness is withdrawn ; it is drawn within, but not 
quenched. In syncope consciousness is withdrawn; but if 
one will watch carefully the first returning consciousness it 
will generally be found that it has been by no means dead 
or idle, for by gently attracting the individual's attention in 
the dawn of returning consciousness, after a faint, it will be 
found that a few seconds have sufficed for the recovery of a 
long-forgotten experience, restored again from the all-sur- 
rounding, all-pervading ether. These few seconds of sus- 
pended animation are often sufficient for the weaving of a 
romance, or for the enactment of a tragedy, and such expe- 
riences are not always fantastic and unreal, as experience 
and observation prove. But perhaps the common instances 
of somnambulism or sleep-walking offer the best demonstra- 



Consciousness. 175 

tions of double consciousness. Persons subject to these at- 
tacks really lead double lives. Individuals walking in their 
sleep have been known to appear among strangers, enter 
into conversation, and yet in the ordinary waking state re- 
tain no recollection of the events or persons. On the suc- 
ceeding night, however, walking again, the previous night's 
experience has been recovered and continued. Even one such 
case is -sufficient to show a natural division in consciousness, 
and a gap occurring between them so far as memory is con- 
cerned. The experiments in magnetism, and more especially 
the recent hypnotic experiments give similar results. In 
many of these cases the knowledge possessed by the indi- 
vidual in the subjective state altogether transcends that of 
objective consciousness. Such persons have been known to 
diagnose correctly their own diseases and to determine the 
duration and termination of the same. Until a very recent 
date the majority of so-called scientists have shown a dis- 
position to ignore or ridicule such cases, in spite of their 
overwhelming authenticity, and now when they seem in- 
clined to investigate these phenomena they learn that they 
are not produced at the will of the subject, nor do they 
readily come under the will of those who are entirely igno- 
rant of the laws under which they occur. The wiser method 
is to ignore nothing that concerns human nature and to take 
advantage of every opportunity to investigate, and particu- 
larly to examine unusual phenomena. In the delirium of 
fevers, and in the intoxication produced by alcohol and vari- 
ous drugs, there is a shifting of the planes of consciousness 
and consequent aberration of memory. With the insane con- 
sciousness is permanently disturbed, and such cases are best 
studied as aberrations of consciousness. It may be doubted 
whether such a thing as unconscious cerebration ever oc- 
curs, though there may be mental processes either above or 
below the plane of memory. To assign all mental aberra- 
tions to the imagination, as though thereby explained, is to 
mistake the office of both imagination and consciousness. 



176 A Study of Man. 

In the delirium caused by opium and alcohol, consciousness 
is shifted to a subjective plane, and sometimes to a very low 
plane. It is a great mistake to assume that the objects seen 
and the events that occur have no real existence. If all 
these are to be regarded as the creations of the imagination, 
we are at a loss how to explain the great uniformity of the 
objects witnessed from the effect of alcohol, for example. 
When we get any rational idea of the subjective world we 
shall discover that the snakes and dragons seen there are as 
veritable on that plane, to subjective sense, as their living 
prototypes are on the phenomenal plane to objective sense, 
for it must be remembered that the universal ether is that 
infinite ocean whence all creation proceeds, and into whose 
all-dissolving bosom all things return. Our relation to ob- 
jects here is largely incidental, determined by location, cir- 
sumstance and the like. On the subjective plane our rela- 
tions are determined by attractions and intrinsic conditions, 
and an individual full of all evil passion, inflamed by alcohol, 
will attract entities of like degree, and so on to the end of the 
list. To say that all such cases result from pure imagina- 
tion is by no means to explain them. Many persons assume 
that when they have named a thing -they have explained it, 
and that further questions are an impertinence. Perhaps 
the most important consideration in regard to the shifting 
states of consciousness from the objective to the subjective 
condition regards that vague and varying state known as in- 
sanity. As a rule with the insane this transfer of conscious- 
ness is partial, seldom complete. Consciousness is rather 
out of joint than actually transferred from plane to plane. 
There is usually an organic lesion, or a functional obstruc- 
tion that tends to tissue change in some of the nerve cen- 
ters. The result in many cases is to break down that sharp 
line of demarkation between the objective and subjective 
worlds. The individual becomes bewildered, loses his bear- 
ings; his experiences are no longer co-ordinate. The in- 
strument through which consciousness is manifested is out 



Consciousness. 177 

of tune, and the result is discard. In regard to these cases 
of perverted function it is a mistake to think that no differ- 
entiation is made as to the planes or states of consciousness : 
practically but one state of consciousness is recognized. The 
further mistake is made of looking upon all objects cognized, 
and upon all experiences outside of the ordinary plane of 
consciousness, as altogether non-existent; that is, a figment 
of the imagination. But what is imagination? Let us ask. 
the artist, the poet, the painter, ask genius that is so closely 
allied to insanity, ask all who create from ideal forms, and 
they will tell us, one and all, that imagination is the wings 
of the soul that bear up the lagging fancy, the slow and 
plodding mind, till it enters the ideal world and gazes there 
on both beauty and deformity in all their nakedness. They 
will tell us that what we call the real world is at best but a 
poor and colorless caricature as compared with the ideals 
open to the imagination, and that what is generally termed 
the work of genius, bears but a touch of .that transcendent 
truth and reality that veils its face from every faculty of 
man on the phenomenal plane. Let us ask the true scientist 
what we know of anything, of matter, space, time, or mo- 
tion, of the whole phenomenal world, and he will tell us, and 
tell us truly, that we have our ozvn ideas of these, and noth- 
ing more. Finally, ask that greatest of modern philosophers, 
Schopenhauer, what imagination is. He will tell us that 
not only the world, but ourselves included, are reducible to 
two terms, imagination and will. The one is the essence and 
the creator of all forms in nature ; the other, the motive and 
creative power, and these powers are as potent on the sub- 
jective as on the objective plane; they are as active in 
drunken delirium, and in insanity, as in that other condition 
of consciousness that we call sanity. If in the phenomenal 
world we build toward our ideals, we seldom realize them. 
All that we thus build not only fails to come up to our 
ideals, but they have incorporated into their entire structure 
both disappointment and decay, from turret to foundation 



178 A Study of Man. 

stone. It may thus be seen that imagination is a potent 
factor on every plane on which consciousness holds open 
court, and that our ideas are often less realities on the phe- 
nomenal plane of outer sense than on any other. The 
amount of empirical evidence demonstrating the existence 
of the subjective plane is simply overwhelming, and ithese 
facts have been quite long enough regarded as mere coinci- 
dences. They are, indeed, often accidents of birth, tempera- 
ment, disease and the like, so far as any human quality or 
human experience can be regarded as accidental. These ir- 
relevant and spasmodic experiences are often a source of 
great distress, and even of calamity to the individual, dis- 
qualifying him for the life of the world while yet unfitted 
to realize and utilize these potent factors in the subjective 
life. Whenever scientists, .so-called, are tired of the su- 
preme folly of trying to deduce consciousness from matter, 
and of ignoring the plainest facts in everyday experience, 
and whenever they will go seriously to work by both induc- 
tion and deduction to investigate consciousness in all its 
manifestations and relations, they will have entered on a line 
of research that will very soon astonish them. Why, it may 
be asked, have scientific men as a whole made so little head- 
way either in investigating that psychological babel, modern 
spiritualism, or in staying its progress even among the edu- 
cated and intelligent? I answer unhesitatingly, because 
they have with few exceptions contented themselves with 
parrot-like reiteration of a meaningless phrase, unconscious 
cerebration; and then they have smiled in each other's faces 
over the humbuggery of assuming that they know what their 
slogan means. They have gone further than this. They 
have put forth this thimble-rigging psychology as orthodox 
science, and done their best to taboo everyone who dared to 
question their conclusions and investigate for himself. The 
announcement has again and again been made that now sci- 
eace is going to take up the subject and handle it as only 
scientists can. But alas ! for those who have waited with 



Consciousness. 179 

great expectations for the results ! These wiseacres have 
like children been frightened by their own bug-a-boo. Some 
one would impeach their orthodoxy and it would ruin their 
prospects as pure scientists. Does this all sound Eke a 
tirade? Then examine the records, from the times of Mes- 
mer and Von Reichenbach down to Hodgeson's report. It 
is no excuse to say that the whole subject is mixed with 
fraud, uncanny and not altogether respectable. Say what 
you please of this psychological babel, it spreads over the 
globe. Noted mediums are invited to the palaces of princes, 
and there is more table-tipping and spirit-communion on the 
sly than spirit-drinking at .the tables of the rich. So-called 
mediumship is often a disease with an almost irresistible 
tendency to suicide, and it is often as contagious as the epi- 
demic monomania of the sixteenth century. Scientific de- 
nunciation has been as powerless to stay the spread of spir- 
itualism as unconscious cerebration to explain it. True sci- 
ence apprehends a real cause behind every phenomenon of 
nature, and even delusion and monomania are no excep- 
tions. If scientific men would but recognize the fact of sub- 
jective consciousness that is demonstrated every time they 
sleep, or give chloroform, or hypnotize an individual, nay, 
every time a weak woman faints in a crowded room, and 
then go to work in earnest to arrange and classify all facts 
derived from this plane of life, they would presently be able 
to offer such an explanation of the powers and planes of ac- 
tion of individual consciousness as would dissipate the de- 
lusions and diminish the dangers of dealing with the dead. 
That our individual consciousness, which in one of its states 
is related to the outer phenomenal world, is on another plane 
independent of space and time, as we understand these 
ter.ms, is a matter of easy demonstration; and it offers an 
explanation, when once clearly defined and understood, of a 
great deal of undeniable human experience now attributed 
to ghosts and goblins damned. Having determined what ex- 
periences are genuine, which is often exceedingly difficult, 



i8o A Study of Man. 

a better knowledge of the powers of man and of his states of 
consciousness will assign to the embodied soul on earth the 
greater part of the spiritualistic phenomena. If one were 
to point out the dangers of these attempts to deal with the 
dead, he would be met by anger and scorn. It rs the most 
useless and dangerous form of other-worldliness. It draws 
the attention from present duty and possibilities in the pres- 
ent life, and reverses the only method by which either arty 
individual, or the race as a whole, has ever risen in the scale 
of being. The whole effort of spiritualism would seem to be 
to determine and to force the return of a disembodied soul 
to earthly consciousness, and to drag it back into matter; 
while every thoughtful person ought to be aware that the 
elevation of man depends on the degree in which he rises 
toward the spiritual world. The time will doubtless come 
when the so-called materializations will be better under- 
stood, and every clean person will avoid them then, as the 
more enlightened among the spiritualists do now. Admit- 
ting, for the sake of the argument, the whole philosophy and 
phenomena of modern spiritualism, these efforts to drag the 
soul back to earth and down into matter can justly be com- 
pared to criminal abortion, where the embryo is wrenched 
from its normal environment by an impulse akin to mur- 
der, the fitting handmaid of animal lust. These twin abomi- 
nations require a third member to constitute an unholy trin- 
ity that shall be a fit companion for Cerberus, the three- 
headed dog that guards the gates of the infernal regions, 
and these dealings with the dead may furnish the missing 
member. This may be strong language, but it may be found 
hereafter that the blood of the slaughtered innocents that so 
continually cries to heaven in this our boasted civilization 
will vie with these dealings with the dead in barring the gates 
of paradise to those who have so thwarted the will of nature 
and disregarded her plainest laws. Dynamite destroys re- 
gardless of the ignorance of him who unwisely trifles with it. 
One world at a time is quite enough for the best of people 



Consciousness. 181 

to deal with, and the best of people have in all time earned 
that title by their efforts to elevate the human race on earth, 
and to ameliorate the condition of humanity; no other world 
can be anticipated without neglect of this. 

What we need is to know more of man as he is here and 
now, and this knowledge will never be derived from psycho- 
logical jugglery. Such explanations as are to be derived 
from psychological laws have now been so long delayed that 
otherwise intelligent persons convinced beyond all cavil of 
the truth of many experiences and phenomena of so-called 
spiritualism are ready to denounce any other than the ortho- 
dox explanations of the spiritualists as direct dealings with 
the dead. These persons have come to their present conclu- 
sions by long and patient trial, with great hesitancy, and 
often only after repeated disappointments from so-called 
science ; and having at last despaired of any other explana- 
tion than that which spiritualism offers they have come to 
the conclusion that none other exists. The responsibility 
here lies at the door of science. It is her sin of omission, 
and she should hasten to correct it. The subjective plane 
of being is to be subjectively experienced, and when such 
subjective experience is that of another, and not our own, 
it is no more evidence for us than any other matter taken 
on faith in the intergity and intelligence of an observer. In 
cases where supposed materializations from the subjective 
world occur, the most simple and at the same time the most 
comprehensive fact is generally overlooked, namely, that all 
that appears, all that is material and visible to the objective 
sense, is not spirit, not subjective; and granting that the 
phenomenon is genuine, it is no evidence of spirit life or 
individual identity. What the thing was before being mate- 
rialized, and what it will be afterward, is as unknown to us 
as before. Admitting all that is claimed for the phenom- 
enon, the explanation is not conclusive, nor is it the only 
one possible. The most wonderful materialization is man 
himself, and our opportunities to investigate him are all that 



182 A Study of Man. 

could be desired. We are not confined to dark seance-rooms, 
a stifling atmosphere, and doomed to have both hands held 
fast lest we should touch or see our subject under investi- 
gation. We can examine our subject at high noon, in the 
broad light of day, at midnight when slumber closes his eye- 
lids and all external consciousness is withdrawn, and when 
the flitting pictures of dreams mold his outer life to ex- 
pressions of emotion. We can examine him in the palace 
and in the hovel, under every stress of feeling, and rocked 
like a frail vessel with surging passion. Here is a material- 
ized spirit if there is one anywhere, and yet man turns from 
him, from his own embodied consciousness, and hunts for 
ghosts and ghouls. We neglect the offices of kindness and 
the words of love and helpfulness till our friend is snatched 
beyond the veil, and then devote the rest of our lives to 
knocking at the door through which he passed to inquire 
if he still lives and is happy ! Alas ! the irony of life in the 
presence of the mystery of death ! Alas ! the hypocrisy over 
death in the presence of the mystery and the wasted oppor- 
tunities of life ! 



"I wage not any feud with Death 

For changes wrought on form and face; 
No lower life, that earth's embrace 
May breed with him, can fright my faith. 



'Eternal process moving on, 

From state to state the spirit walks; 

And these are but the shattered stalks, 
Or ruined chrysalis of one. 

'How pure at heart and sound in head, 

With what divine affections bold, 

Should be the man whose thoughts would hold 
An hour's communion with the dead. 



Consciousness. 183 



: 'In vain shalt thou, or any call 

The spirits from their golden day, 
Except, like them, thou too canst say, 

My spirit is at peace with all." 



CHAPTER XII. 



HEALTH AND DISEASE. 



The most earnest and the most able students of the phe- 
nomena of nature have often been led to the conception that 
all the forces in nature that manifest their presence as spe- 
cial modes of motion are resolvable into one force, and that 
this one force is the latent energy lying back of all phenom- 
ena. It has been elsewhere suggested in these pages that 
what we recognize as magnetism answers more nearly to 
this universal force than any form of energy known to us 
today. To say that magnetism is life would be a meaning- 
less assertion in the present condition of our knowledge of 
either life or magnetism; and yet the phenomena of life and 
the phenomena of magnetism are very closely related to each 
other. Life, like magnetism, seems to be everywhere dif- 
fused. Each seems ready to manifest its presence on the 
slightest provocation, the conditions of their manifestation 
so far as we know being very simple, yet the conditions are 
very different in the two cases. No life dissociated from or- 
ganisms is manifest to us. Magnetism on the other hand 
manifests its presence in both animate and inanimate na- 
ture, and no radical difference has yet been discovered be- 
tween animal and terrestrial magnetism. It might logically 
be conceived that magnetism is that latent energy every- 
where diffused in nature, which, under certain conditions, 
assumes the special mode of motion designated as heat, 
light, electricity and the like, and which at the same time 
constitutes ihe sum of that energy of the organism called 
vitality. The vital phenomena of organisms are manifest in 

(184) 



Health and Disease. 185 

a great variety of forms, and may be conceived as involving 
and combining all other modes of motion, and at the same 
time there are still higher forms of energy displayed by or- 
ganisms that are found nowhere else in nature. If magnet- 
ism and life cannot be conceived as synonyms, magnetism 
and vitality may be found more closely allied, though life is 
more than mere vitality, and vitality is more than magnet- 
ism. It should be borne in mind that we do not know the es- 
sence of any force, no matter how simple its display, and it 
should also be remembered that the energy of living beings 
is directly related to that which alone manifests life, namely, 
the organism. While therefore we may consider life in its 
relation to mere vitality and to magnetism on the one side, 
we must not forget that life bears a definite relation to all 
special modes of motion, and variations of structure desig- 
nated as organic on the other side; or, we must remember 
the structure and conditions of manifestation while consid- 
ering the energy that is displayed. Again, it should be re- 
membered that magnetism in organisms is the polarizing 
agency, and that while it determines organization, facilitates 
movement, and co-ordinate rhythm, it tends also to the fixa- 
tion of form which in the end crystallizes and destroys. In 
other words, the motive power of life is at last a consuming 
fire. So far as dynamics are concerned, the creator and the 
destroyer are one. 

"Life evermore is fed by death, 

In earth, and sea, and sky; 
And, that a rose may breathe its breath, 

Something must die. 

"From lowly woe springs lordly joy; 

From humbler good, diviner; 
The greater life must aye destroy 

And drink the minor." 

It may thus be seen that both life and vitality are some- 



186 A Study of Man. 

thing more than magnetism. The most comprehensive fact 
in germ or organism is not mere vitality, not the quantity of 
force present, nor yet the fact that this energy manifests a 
great variety of movements. The most comprehensive fact 
is the positing of a center of life, and the unfolding of a still 
interior center of consciousness. The principle of form and 
order, the laws of development, and the mode of action, 
transcend the mere equivalents of energy. It is true that no 
life is manifest without movement of matter, and that vital- 
ity represents both the motive power and the sum of all en- 
ergy, and magnetism may be the source whence vitality is 
derived; but, if this were all, then a steam engine and a block 
of stone would be of equal value as motors when inspired by 
steam. 

No adequate idea of the real meaning of the woid health 
is possible except in intimate relation with the word life; 
and no adequate conception of the meaning of the word life 
is possible dissociated from an organism, which alone mani- 
fests life. Life is something more than any or all force, and 
health is something beyond all energy or mere vitality. If 
no amount of mere vitality alone constitutes life, so no mere 
lack of energy can alone cause disease or death. Neither 
life, nor health, nor disease can be regarded as mere kine- 
matics. 

When we regard life as an endowment of matter, even 
in the relatively formless matter called protoplasm, we find 
it always associated with an organism, so that the foregoing 
principles hold good even here. Previous to the positing of 
a center of life, and the building of an organism, we cannot 
conceive of life as being manifested in matter, or in any 
sense as an attribute of matter alone. If, therefore, life can 
be said to be in any sense an attribute of matter, even of 
protoplasm, so in the same sense, though perhaps in a less 
degree, can life be predicated of all matter — latent in one 
case, and manifest in another. Whenever so-called living 
matter has been analyzed no element has been found un- 



Health and Disease. 187 

familiar to the chemist. We may regard the life principle,, 
-or the potency of life, as diffused everywhere in nature, and 
all matter as waiting for the manifestation of life. A con- 
siderable portion of the matter of the globe has no doubt 
thus been at one time involved in the manifestation of life, 
and these remains of organisms constitute alike the ocean's 
bed and the mountain's mass. 

So far as life can be regarded as a quality of matter it is 
everywhere one in kind. There is, indeed, one flesh of beasts, 
another of fishes, another of birds, and another of man ; but 
the life principle in all these is not many, but one. The mat- 
ter of life in all these varied forms is convertible, one 
into the other, and such conversion modifies the organ- 
ism that feeds on other forms of life, though this alone can- 
not change the nature of beast or man. 

If life as a quality of matter is everywhere the same in 
kind, we may define health in any case, whether in plants, 
animals or man, as the harmonious operation of the life force 
in an organism. This ideal harmony would include the sum 
of all energies and perfection in the development of struc- 
ture. Harmony between all these would constitute health. 
Disease might then arise through failure of action, or over- 
action of any of these elements of force or structure. Re- 
garding again the force side of the equation alone, as there 
is but one quality of life, viewed as an endowment of matter, 
so would there be but one kind of disease, viewed as a dis- 
turbance of vitality. While, then, life viewed as one in kind 
manifests or qualifies in an innumerable number of forms or 
concrete degrees, so disease, viewed as disturbed harmony 
or modified vitality, and one in kind, would be found to 
manifest a great variety of forms. The vitality, and the in- 
tegrity of the structure in organisms, are definitely related 
to each other. These are mutually dependent. Not the 
slightest disturbance of either function or structure is pos- 
sible without the other participating and suffering accord- 
ingly. In all matters of growth, repair, development and 



188 A Study of Man. 

function, it is physiologically as correct to say that the func- 
tion builds or exercises the organ as that the organ exer- 
cises the function. The relation and the dependence are 
mutual. 

If these principles are true on the organic plane of life, 
in relation to structure and function, and no physiologist can 
successfully deny them, they will also be found to hold good 
on the higher plane where body and soul are concerned. 
The relation between body and mind will be found to be the 
same as between organism and function, or between struc- 
ture and vitality. If in any sense the body can be said to 
build and to manifest mind, in the same sense can the mind 
be said to build and exercise the body. The dependence 
here, as in the former case, is mutual. 

If the foregoing premise and reasoning be correct, then 
the prevailing methods of regarding health and disease are 
greatly at fault, for these pay great attention to vitality and 
structure, but almost wholly disregard the relation of body 
and mind. If the relation of vitality to structure on the one 
side is supplemented by the relation of mind to body on the 
other, what reason can there be for paying so much atten- 
tion to vitality and so little attention to mind? We hear 
much about the necessary care of the body, and of its exer- 
cise to promote vitality, strength of life, and length of days; 
but we hear very little in regard to habits of thought, strength 
of will, and dissipation of energy in the mental realm. Im- 
agination, the creator of forms and of all ideals, is left to 
run riot, or is indulged as a mere luxury, a beautiful or a 
depraved supernumerary of existence. 

Every intelligent student -of human nature is aware that 
any disturbance of bodily structure or function modifies 
mental function and power, and that whenever such disturb- 
ance is severe, or long continued, the mental alienation may 
also become severe. No so-called diseases are more common 
than hysteria and hypochondria; they often give color to a 
whole life, destroy all happiness, and render their possessors 



Health and Disease. 189 

the most miserable of beings, besides entailing untold misery 
upon others. But slight physical disturbance in such cases 
can be discovered, certainly none that necessarily shortens 
physical life ; nor is there great bodily pain, nor physical suf- 
fering, nor inability for almost any amount of sensuous in- 
dulgence or dissipation. There is often in such cases a 
wonderful ability to make everyone miserable. We are all 
familiar with persons who habitually indulge in fits of anger, 
jealousy, enviousness, greed, and all uncharitableness ; and 
these persons seem to be unaware of the fact that they are 
molding their whole bodily structure to these vicious habits, 
so that in time it may refuse to express any other sentiment 
or emotion. The connection between body and mind seems 
to be wholly lost sight of. All evil passions and unworthy 
thoughts vitiate the bodily secretions, and in time mold the 
tissues so that the recurrence is automatic. It is by no means 
an uncommon occurrence for a nursing infant to be thrown 
into convulsions from nursing a mother that had recently in- 
dulged in a fit of anger, or to sicken from a mother's grief 
and unhappiness. These considerations and illustrations 
might be extended indefinitely to show the influence of the 
mind over the body, supplementing the influence of body on 
mind. Enough, however, has been said to show how basic 
are these relations, and that any concept of health, and any 
theory of disease must regard the relations of mind to body 
no less than of body to vitality. 

Now, in rhe light of these considerations, what is health ? 
We are not yet ready to answer this important question. In 
considering health in relation to vitality and structure, we 
have discovered that another factor enters into the account, 
namely, mind. If vitality be the motive power of the body, 
mind is its crowning glory; and just as the vitality may be 
weakened, vitiated or destroyed by vicious habits, so may 
the mind be deranged and demoralized by a similar process. 
Take from man all motive power, and all mental power, and 
his body becomes an inert mass, fit only as food for worms, 



190 A Study of Man. 

or to be scattered to the elements from which it came. If 
health in its broadest sense is harmony, then that harmony 
concerns body and mind no less than body and vitality. 
What then is the normal relation of body and mind concern- 
ing which harmony is to be predicated and secured ? 

Mind is the immediate agent of the conscious ego on the 
one side, and on the other it stands as the concensus of all 
bodily faculties, sensations and feelings ; or, in other words, 
as the translator of the outer physical world, through ex- 
perience, into terms of self-consciousness. The body then, 
with all its functions and faculties, is the servant of the con- 
scious ego, the real self. Mind and body therefore are 
equally servants of the real man. The sensuous life of man 
is directly related to the bodily structure and functions, and 
indirectly related to his mental life, while the results of all 
experience in these realms belong to the conscious ego, man's 
real individual life. The intellectual life of man is directly 
related to the conscious ego above, to the sensuous life be- 
low, and indirectly related to the physical structure. What 
we call mind is therefore intermediate between the ego and 
the body. Naturally the mind is the almoner of the real 
man, while the body is its servant to do its bidding — the 
vehicle of its will, and the servant of its commands. Here 
then is a community of interests with a centralization of 
power, but in the natural order this government is patri- 
archal. If the head directs the hands as to what they shall 
hold or not hold, and directs the feet whither they shall tend, 
by reason of the intelligence which the head possesses and 
which the hands and feet do not possess, the head preserves 
and protects both hands and feet as its own, as part of its 
very self, its trained and true servants and best friends. 
Each has need of the other. But suppose the hands and feet 
grow rebellious, and say to the head, we will no longer fol- 
low your bidding, we prefer our own counsels, and will go 
our'own way; it is easy to see what will follow. The order 
and the design of nature are apparent. It would be no 



Health and Disease. 191 

more absurd to allow the hands and feet to dictate the policy 
of government in the life of man than to allow his sensuous 
life, his appetites and passions, to rule rather than serve the 
real man. Harmony therefore means the rule of the lower 
faculties by the next higher in concrete degrees, and the su- 
preme rule of the conscious ego. Everything short of this 
is the harmony of death. Peace secured on any other terms 
means final dissolution and destruction. In a well-ordered 
government, such as the nature of man is evidently designed 
to be, the ego sits a king upon his throne. The mental 
faculties are his ministers of state; the sensory faculties are 
his household servants, and never his masters. The vital 
powers are his standing army to protect his realm, and never 
to invade that of his neighbors, but able, in case of need, to 
relieve distress, protect the innocent, and promote the reign 
of peace and plenty throughout the world. When the king 
is thus enthroned, Health blooms like a rose on the outer 
walls of his palace, and harmony dwells within his gates. 
This is the meaning of a sound mind in a sound body; and 
the jewel that sparkles in the crown of the king is a spark 
of the Divine Intelligence, and it illuminates the whole pal- 
ace as the diadem of divinity. 

But alas ! the king is dethroned and a tyrant sits in his 
stead. He dons the crown and boasts of its jewel, unmind- 
ful that its brightness is blackened as with fire. There is no 
tyrant like disease. His minions lurk in every drop of blood, 
and hold high carnival in joint and sinew; their bonfires 
glare in every organ, and set on fire even the mind, the pal- 
ace of the king; they hoot at the tyrant, yet hasten to do his 
evil bidding. Crime is but another name for disease, and 
sickness and pain are but the disorder, bred by ignorance of 
the just laws of the rightful heir to the throne of life. It 
was not so designed ; it ought not so to be. Whenever intel- 
ligent human beings shall take as much pains to keep their 
minds clean as to keep their bodies clean; whenever these 
shall realize that even perfect health, noble powers, and 



192 A Study of Man. 

splendid opportunities are but the beginning of real life on 
earth, then only will man have entered his birthright, and 
begun to involve the divinity that is above him. 

The progress of science is almost altogether in physical 
things, and the practice of medicine has little regard for 
anything beyond man's physical being. Insane asylums are 
crowded to repletion, and half the energies of those who are 
not actually disabled by disease in some form, or who are not 
classed and housed either as criminals or unfortunates, are 
demanded to take care of those who are thus disabled and 
sequestered. It is as though an army marching through an 
unknown land were kept busy caring for its wounded and 
burying its dead, when not in actual conflict with its camp- 
followers. Real progress is retarded if not impossible. The 
rule of nature is not the greatest good to the greatest num- 
ber, but the greatest good to all; and she everywhere and 
at all times places over against the apparent progress of the 
classes, the real degradation, suffering and despair of the 
masses. If you think, my reader, that this is an altogether 
pessimistic view of things, I put but one inquiry: Is it not 
true ? He who is clothed in the human form, and who there- 
fore belongs to the great body, humanity; he whose lines 
have fallen in pleasant places and who is rich in basket and 
in store, yet who imagines that he has progressed away from 
the misfortunes and miseries of his kind, will find himself 
woefully mistaken. The miseries of humanity are indeed 
like a great stone, crushing out its life. He who will fall 
upon this stone with all his best endeavor shall break it; but 
upon whomsoever this stone shall fall it shall grind him to 
powder. Neither politics nor physic will cure the ills with 
which we are afflicted. More than half our diseases, count- 
ing criminals and so-called unfortunates, are of mental ori- 
gin. Vicious habits of thought, greed for place, for power, 
and for gold, selfishness in every devil's garb, crush out the 
light of love and disease all humanity. 

The laws of health are few and simple ; the means of 



Health and Disease. 



i93 



restoration to health, where people are not hopelessly dis- 
eased, are usually simple also; but these laws and measures 
have strict regard to the mind as well as to the body, and no 
less to the body politic. We placard a house against small- 
pox, and disinfect against contagion, yet moral leprosy and 
mental distemper are .seldom regarded as contagious. Every- 
thing possible is often done to increase the predisposition to 
disease in the young by encouraging precocity and disre- 
garding malformation. If a child of tuberculous parents 
is born with a nar.row chest and a large head, by the time 
he reaches the age of puberty these defects in the structural 
harmony of the body are often greatly increased, whereas 
they might be nearly, if not altogether eliminated by out-of- 
door exercise, proper diet, and mental repose. The statistics 
of consumption are a sufficient commentary. The doctors 
are expected to do with drugs what the parents might have 
accomplished by a little less worship of society, or mam- 
mon, and a little knowledge of physiology. The druggists 
and the venders of patent medicines manage to pick up a 
living, while the doctors waste a good deal of valuable time 
in collecting fees and gathering statistics for cases of tuber- 
cular disease ! By the time these cases are brought to the 
doctors with cough, hectic, nightsweats, and emaciation, 
they are hopeless, and before this time warning is disre- 
garded. The medical profession has been actively and faith- 
fully engaged for many years in trying to discover the cause 
and prevention of disease, and the best service of the best 
physician consists in teaching people how not to be sick. 
Many persons in every community value the services of a 
physician according to the length of his countenance and the 
size of his doses. This offers a golden field to patent medi- 
cines, advertising quacks, and unprincipled scoundrels, and 
here as elsewhere the supply equals and sometimes exceeds 
the demand, and yet these people wonder that they are sick. 
The real province of medicine in the cure of disease is very 
narrow. The true application of physiology and hygiene 



194 A Study of Man. 

in the prevention of disease and in the restoration to health 
is very broad. There is indeed in every community a large 
and increasing class of persons who are beginning to realize 
these facts, and though a single generation will not suffice 
to render them longer-lived, they have already greater confi- 
dence and greater comfort in life. The organization of 
schools for the training of nurses, and the better education 
of students in all respectable medical colleges, added to de- 
crease of drugging and better regard for the laws of life 
and health in general, are hopeful signs for the future of 
humanity. As yet these are but feeble resources in the face 
of the ignorance, the superstition and the degradation of 
man. Fraud and imposture are always able to thrive on ig- 
norance, and disease will disappear only in proportion as 
these recede. 

The life of the globe is one in kind, so far as life is con- 
sidered as a force inherent in matter. It may also be con- 
ceived that disease is also reducible to a single form as dis- 
turbed vitality. A mental emotion, indulgence of the im- 
agination or mental friction is as competent to disturb vital- 
ity as any physical cause. In a great many cases of disease 
recovery is retarded or rendered impossible by mental con- 
ditions. Mental states are thus both the cause and the cure 
of many diseases, and mental conditions have a great deal 
to do in all diseases. It likewise follows that mental states 
ward off disease and promote health. It is quite evident 
from the signs of the times that these facts are being better 
understood, and that so-called mental cure is to have a far 
larger part to play in the future of medicine than has been 
assigned to it in the past. Intemperate, unreasonable, and 
untrue assertions, however, will not promote progress in 
this direction more than in any other. The mind is not all 
there is of man, nor is mind the sole cause of either life, 
health or disease. We have already indicated the relation 
of mind to body, and of the conscious ego to mind. There 
are bodily functions, like respiration, that are largely under 



Health and Disease. 



195 



the control of the will, and cases have been known where 
the exercise of the will could perceptibly modify the action 
of the heart. In ordinary life, however, there is no function 
of man less under the control of the will than the process of 
thought; and few individuals have any more power to pre- 
vent or control the surging billows of passion that sweep 
over the soul than they have to ward off malaria or small- 
pox from the physical body. There is no greater predispo- 
tient to disease than fear, which renders the body negative 
and disarms the mind of all resistance to all morbific agents. 
The characteristic phenomena of fear, influencing both mind 
and body, are more or less present in all disease, though 
these phenomena may arise from an innumerable number of 
causes. It is true that mental exaltation may render the in- 
dividual unconscious of pain, and may even remove func- 
tional disease under certain circumstances. It is equally 
true that mental exaltation will result in insanity and cause 
death. Mere mental exaltation, therefore, is not necessarily 
a beneficent and curative process; nor will any mental state 
possible to man in his present condition of inherited disease 
and partial development be sufficient to remove his disabil- 
ity, and keep him well and happy for any great length of 
time. Such a result can only be attained through processes 
that fully recognize what man is, and what it is possible for 
him to become, and the philosophy which attains this re- 
sult will not begin by ignoring the fact that man is a divine 
idea but partially realized — imperfect as to mechanism and 
function, and habituated by long practice and generations 
of inherited bias to disease, to sin and to death. This imper- 
fect man is not in any broad sense a magician. A true 
magician is one who, from intimate knowledge of the laws 
and processes of nature, is able to bring about results that 
seem miraculous to those ignorant of nature's laws. It is 
true that enthusiasm and mental exaltation will sometimes 
accomplish wonders; but when these conditions are laid on 
a foundation of ignorance, and not on any real knowledge, 



196 A Study of Man. 

the results are neither certain nor permanent. The asser- 
tions of ignorance are not always separated from the dicta 
of knowledge; the ignorant and superstitious know no dif- 
ference between them. 

Cheerfulness is a great promoter of health, and yet many 
persons are from temperament and inheritance morbid and 
melancholy. Antenatal conditions must be taken into ac- 
count, and the load of depression accumulated generation 
after generation sometimes rests upon an individual with a 
crushing power that he is unable to withstand. The educa- 
tion of an individual is inseparable from his inheritance, 
and always commences long before he is born. Whenever 
parents begin to realize this fact they will be able to prevent 
many of those calamities that now entail untold misery. 

What man most needs is a knowledge of his own nature, 
and of the laws of physiology that conduce to health of body, 
and health of mind. When man is in possession of this 
knowledge he will value it above rubies, and when, through 
the exercise of this knowledge, he has been able to remove 
all vicious habits, and to overcome inherited bias to disease 
and crime, then indeed, will the bright blood of health course 
through his veins. 

Even in the face of all these acquired habits and in- 
herited tendencies to disease restoration to the best degree 
of health possible under the circumstances depends far less 
on any drug action than on the correction of the vicious 
habit, be it of body or of mind. People often regard these 
measures as ridiculously simple, and in other cases are un- 
willing to forego the self-denial and take the trouble neces- 
sary to recovery. People often act as though they believe 
mat, when sick, it is only necessary to consult a physician, 
pay him a fee, take a certain quantity of drugs, and straight- 
way be as though the disease had never occurred. The 
vicious habit remaining unchecked, the disease of course re- 
turns, and so-called chronic disease is the result. Medicine 
no longer serves to arrest or modify the condition com- 



Health and Disease. 197 

plained of, and the cure is now rendered often impossible. 
The result is a premature death or a miserable old age; but 
in the meantime the vicious habit is generally transmitted 
to posterity, and the final conflict, rendered constantly more 
difficult, is relegated to the coming generations. 

These are the problems that are pressing for considera- 
tion. There is no end of new remedies, and new methods 
of compromise with disease; but there is far too little atten- 
tion paid to the promotion and preservation of health, and 
toward this end the mental conditions, habits of thought, 
and ideals in life, have quite as much to do as any mere bod- 
ily function. We need less of mind-cure, and far more of 
mind-health ; we need higher ideals in life, pursued with 
more zeal; we need a concentration of energies on more 
noble purposes; we need mental exaltation that shall be able 
to see beyond self, and that shall be supported by health of 
body, and thus be capable of unwearied exercise, and not un- 
settle the reason, nor relax into ennui and imbecility. 

Reforms in medicine, like political reforms, come largely 
from outside demand originating with the people. With 
many noble exceptions, and in spite of the progress and lib- 
erality of the age, there is, nevertheless, more of bigotry, 
more of the spirit of intolerance and persecution in the so- 
called medical profession of today than among almost any 
other class of persons of equal intelligence. The reason for 
this may be found in the innate selfishness of human na- 
ture, so often placed on trial by self-interest. Those igno- 
rant of the laws of life are in continual fear of death ; igno- 
rance and fear thus offer continual prizes to cupidity. Hu- 
man nature is indeed everywhere the same, but selfishness 
does not everywhere have equal opportunity. The growth 
of selfishness, like that of any other vice, is often impercep- 
tible ; it is but another form of animal egotism, and it thrives 
best in an age of ignorance and superstition. Progress else- 
where in human affairs depends upon the diffusion of intel- 
ligence among the people, and progress in medicine offers 



198 A Study of Man. 

no exception to the rule. Nothing will do so much to banish 
the fear of death as diffusion of a knowledge of the laws 
cf life. 

Unprofessional and even unprincipled persons have re- 
cently called attention to the influence of mind in promoting 
both health and disease. Many persons in every community 
have caught the new craze, and as a consequence there is 
a decrease in the sale of patent medicines .and in indiscrim- 
inate drugging. If physicians would encourage a liberal 
spirit of investigation, and would rely less on denunciation, 
soon every honest student would be convinced that drugs are 
inferior to dynamics, and that the silent, and hitherto unrec- 
ognized forces of nature, are potent agents for both good 
and ill. Denunciation not only never promotes the cause of 
truth, but it often confirms people in error. There is, in- 
deed, both room for improvement and need of progress at 
this point. Humanity will still offer a fruitful field for 
speculation, no less from a financial than from a philosoph- 
ical point of view, and its only protection and elevation will 
still lie in the diffusion of knowledge among the masses. 
While ignorance remains, cupidity will flourish. Whenever 
among the people the real good is placed above the seeming 
profit; when health of body and health of mind are held as 
superior to sensuous enjoyment; whenever character is held 
as superior to conventionality, and whenever standards of 
sight are valued above those of so-called society, then will 
the ideal become the real, and health will take the place of 
disease. 

The condition called disease manifests its presence, first, 
through disturbed function, and even where tissue change 
is the first to be observed no such change has arisen without 
previous disturbance of function in the part involved. When, 
therefore, diseases are classed as functional and organic, 
the former precede the latter. The seeming exceptions to 
this rule where, for example, morbid growths arise, are 
classed as disturbances of the function oi nutrition, and later 



Health and Disease. 199 

on in progress of the disease, these morbid growths may 
disturb other functions in many ways. The length of time 
required for acute functional disease to become chronic or- 
ganic disease varies very greatly. As a rule this change oc- 
curs very slowly, owing to the resistance offered by the vital- 
ity of the body. There are exceptional cases, however, 
where, from age or enfeebled constitution, the progress is 
very rapid. In the strictest sense there can be no disturb- 
ance of function without disturbance of structure, while 
every abnormal modification of structure changes the func- 
tion of the organ or part involved. While, therefore, the 
most intelligent pathologist often experiences difficulty in 
determining in a given case whether important tissue 
changes have yet occurr«*i, those ignorant of these basic 
principles of pathology often entirely overlook the differ- 
ence between incurable organic disease and simple func- 
tional disturbance, and are as ready to promise a cure in the 
one case as in another. Just so surely as disease results in 
death, so surely is there a period during its progress pre- 
vious to death when it is incurable. This point is never 
reached through impaired function alone. The old saying, 
"as long as there is life there is hope," is, therefore, often a 
fallacy. It is a singular circumstance that when an individ- 
ual recovers from any given disease, the recovery is attrib- 
uted to such appliances as have been made use of, no matter 
what they may have been, even though they may really have 
permanently impaired the health of the patient. Let any 
dozen similar cases of any disease be treated by as many 
different methods, some of them diametrically opposite, and 
with doses of drugs varying from the maximum to the min- 
imum, and the practitioner in every case will claim credit 
for the cure, provided the patient does not die. If the pa- 
tient dies, really from overdosing and malpractice, or from 
neglect of the proper remedies, or from any other cause, it 
as put down as an inscrutable dispensation of Divine Provi- 
dence. We thus rob Providence of all credit for assistance 



200 A Study of Man. 

in case of cure, and load upon him all our misfortunes and 
mistakes. There is no help for this condition of things ex- 
cept in better knowledge on the part of the people, and more 
and better knowledge on the part of the practitioners of 
medicine. The simple fact ought to be generally understood 
that by far the larger part of simple functional disorders 
tends to spontaneous recovery. It ought to be generally un- 
derstood that such assistance as is generally required to re- 
store a simple functional disturbance consists largely -in hy- 
gienic and dietetic measures, such as are dictated by intelli- 
gence. It ought to be generally understood, moreover, that 
most of such cases will recover if they 'are not prevented 
from so doing by pernicious interference ; and finally it ought 
to be understood that no person is properly educated who 
cannot in some fair degree distinguish between functional 
and organic disease. The pursuit of this knowledge should 
be encouraged in preference to much of that which now 
constitutes the course pursued in schools and colleges. The 
first result of the more general diffusion of such knowledge 
would be that the physician would be less frequently con- 
sulted. The second result would be the more frequent de- 
tection and suppression of charlatanry, and the physician 
would be consulted in serious cases before it is too late. The 
result upon the medical profession would be that the genu- 
ine physician would be all the more appreciated. His occu- 
pation would indeed be skilled labor in the highest sense : 
he would be to his patrons at once teacher, counsellor and 
friend, and the upper ranks of the profession, open then as 
now to all aspirants, would be measured by philanthropy no 
less than by skill. Physicians have in recent times paid 
great attention to the accurate diagnosis of disease. This 
branch of professional work has indeed become a fine art. 
It was formerly believed that skill in diagnosis could only 
come by long experience. One year's hospital experience 
to a young man well read in anatomy, physiology and diag- 
nosis, is now really of more worth as genuine experience 



Health and Disease. 201 

than a dozen years of the happy-go-lucky experience of a 
generation ago. The more intelligent individuals in any 
community no longer require that their doctors shall be 
moldy like their cheese, as Dr. Holmes wittily puts it, -well 
knowing that much of so-called experience serves only to 
deepen error and repeat mistakes. 

From the foregoing considerations it is easy to deter- 
mine what influence the mind may have on disease in gen- 
eral, and what class of diseases may disappear during men- 
tal exaltation, no matter how induced. These are strictly 
functional disorders. Unfortunately, very few indeed of the 
practitioners in the new craze called "mind-cure," "Chris- 
tian Science," and the like, are any better able to diagnose 
disease than their patients, and they are as likely to promise 
or report a cure of cancer or tuberculosis in the last stage 
as in cases of hysteria or hypochondriasis. These people 
seem unmindful of the fact that dangerous cases may be 
criminally neglected, and that other cases will recover spon- 
taneously if not interfered with. There is, moreover, an- 
other principle of equal importance relating to the function 
of the mind. If one were liable to fall overboard in mid- 
ocean, where nothing but swimming could save him, it would 
be the part of wisdom to try swimming. If one found him- 
self overboard with no previous experience in swimming, he 
might intuitively catch the knack of swimming and pull out 
manfully till rescued; but the chances would be that in the 
excitement, bewildered by fright, he would drown. It has 
already been shown that the great majority of persons can 
no more control their thoughts, and concentrate their minds 
on a given idea, than by an effort of the will they can con- 
trol the beating of their own hearts. If, then, no facility in 
controlling the mind and concentrating the thought has pre- 
viously been acquired by an individual, and if he makes his 
first attempt at such control when under pressure of great 
excitement, or great danger, it is very doubtful if any ap- 
preciable result would follow, though a self-limiting disease, 



202 A Study of Man. 

a mere functional disturbance, might coincidently disappear. 
Such disturbances are always more or less influenced by the 
will, and are sometimes purely imaginary. On the other 
hand, it is well known that will power may be cultivated, 
and by practice the mental faculties may be concentrated to 
the point of abstraction, or such concentration may even re- 
sult in distraction. Such exercises are, to say the least, dan- 
gerous to those ignorant of the laws of mind ; as optical dis- 
ease and insanity have been known to result therefrom. An 
individual in whom the mental faculties have been wisely 
exercised and concentrated by the will may indeed fix his 
mind upon a given subject to the exclusion of all others; 
and according to the motives that actuate his life, and the 
ideals that inspire his soul, he may create blessing or ban, 
and promote health or disease. The exercise of mental con- 
centration is one in which the poet, Tennyson, is said to de- 
light, and he plainly refers to it in some of his most ex- 
quisite passages. For an individual who habitually neglects 
the plainest laws of health, and indulges many evil passions, 
to devote his time to mental concentration for the cure of 
diseases that far safer and simpler measures would prevent 
is, to say the least, an unmitigated folly. 

It is not, therefore, difficult to predict the outcome of the 
mind-cure and the so-called Christian Science craze. It 
has its good and its evil side according as its cultivators are 
sincere and intelligent, or the reverse. It has already done 
some good, and a great deal of harm, and so will it no doubt 
continue to do to the end of the chapter, when some new 
craze will take its place. 

To the intelligent student of human nature all such epi- 
sodes present interesting psychological studies, and if he but 
examines them fairly and dispassionately they will prove 
valuable and instructive. If, however, he allows himself to 
become a zealous partisan on either side, he may follow, or 
fight the craze, and be no wiser in the one case than in the 
other. 



Health and Disease. 203 

The true student of human nature will be as passionless 
in the pursuit of truth as he will be earnest in applying and 
diffusing it for the benefit of his fellowmen. Reformers 
have, indeed, often been men of one idea, and unable to con- 
trol the forces they have raised; new and often greater 
abuses have followed closely upon reform. The student of 
human nature must be a philosopher, and he may also be a 
philanthropist. He may not rouse a nation to anger, but 
he can inspire the souls of men with benevolence ; and 
though he may escape fame, he will be certain of a peaceful 
life and a contented mind. In the present condition of so- 
ciety, when disease in some form is more nearly the rule 
than the exception, a large part of the resources and of the 
energy of mankind is necessarily employed to secure health. 
The records of premature deaths and incurable diseases 
show how inadequate, after all, are our efforts in this direc- 
tion. It is indeed a rare thing to find an individual without 
an infirmity of some kind. We would soon become weary 
of listening to a musician who devoted the greater part of 
bis time to the tuning of his instrument, and who could at 
best give us but snatches of harmony and mere glimpses of 
his power. The human mechanism is a most wondrous in- 
strument, capable not only of producing simple harmony, 
but of repeating the symphony of creation. Health of body 
and mind, rare as that condition may be, is nevertheless the 
beginning, and not the end of existence. The struggle for 
mere existence, wherein man is obliged to wage perpetual 
warfare against the foes of health, can give little conception 
of the real ministry and destiny of man on earth. So long 
as this battle must wage man cannot be said really to have 
lived at all. In perfect health man is no longer at war with 
nature, nor with the elements of bis own body. Health 
means perfect peace, and is the foundation upon which the 
harmony and the blessedness of life proceed. From this foun- 
dation the real divinity in man will go forth as an image of 
his Creator, and a co-worker with the divine. In the pres- 



204 A Study of Man. 

ent condition of man this may indeed be an ideal life, but 
it is certainly foreshadowed by all lower forms of life, and 
heralded by all coming events as the earthly destiny of man 
— a condition that is neither incomprehensible nor unattain- 
able. Among the devices of men there is to be found no 
royal road to learning, and no universal panacea for disease. 
In the divinely appointed ordinances of nature may be found 
both the royal road and the exemption from disease and 
suffering. These lie along the line of discernment and obe- 
dience to law — not merely the laws governing the body, or 
the mind alone, for even these do not constitute the entire 
man. If man obeys, as far as they are known, the laws gov- 
erning the body, disregards the laws of the mind, and is en- 
tirely ignorant of the laws of the soul, or the higher self, he 
will still be at war with the very elements of his own na- 
ture, and he cannot possibly thus be in harmony with his 
environment, or essential being. Health transcends the mere 
physical conditions as man transcends mere matter and forces 
as harmony transcends all musical instruments. It is in- 
deed true that, in its highest sense as complete harmony, 
health is an ideal condition; but nature never builds without 
ideals, and no superstructure that man has ever reared has 
amounted to anything except as it embodied and realized 
more or less completely these ideals of nature.* Man has 
discovered many things, but in reality invented nothing. 
The partial glimpses that man has gained of the laws and 
orderly processes of nature have but enabled him to devise 
fee'uie counterparts of her equally wonderful appliances for 
utilizing force, overcoming resistance, and transforming 
matter. He who builds without ideals, either in the outer 
world of sense or in the inner world of soul, is leading an 
aimless life, and is like a ship sailing a boundless ocean with-- 

*The architectural principles of Vitruvius have as a foundation 
the modulus of man, thus deriving nature's law of form and pro- 
portion from her most perfect handiwork. 



Health and Disease. 205 

out chart, compass, or destination, following the law of 
chances as to shipwreck, and after that as to death or rescue. 
Nor is man left in necessary ignorance of these ideals. So 
long as man deliberately chooses the seeming profit in place 
of the real good, and prefers a moment's pleasure and an 
age of paim to self-denial, which is but the struggle to rise, 
or as the stroke of the brave swimmer to reach the shore, 
just so long will man be sick in mind and sick in soul, and 
therefore sick in body. No desirable possession of the mind, 
body or soul is ever attained without a struggle. All earthly 
possessions cost us dear either to gain or to hold, and neither 
health of body, peace of mind, nor supremacy of soul are 
gained on easier terms, else would they be today the uni- 
versal possession of man, in place of sickness, pain and 
death. One man plants a tree, well knowing that another 
shall gather the fruit. One man lays the foundation of a 
fortune that his progeny may wear the crown of wealth, and 
yet few labor to possess and transmit even physical health 
to posterity. The foundations of great fortunes are always 
laid in labor and self-denial, and so are those of health and 
holiness. Thousands of young people set sail in life really 
bankrupt in health and in morals. Vitality and fresh expe- 
riences in sensuous enjoyment may for a time tide over the 
impending crisis, but it comes at last, involving innocent 
souls in ruin; and so the calamities of life are transmitted 
and perpetuated generation after generation, and then the ' 
blame is referred to the sin of Adam, or the dispensations 
of Providence ! Every bankrupt soul knows better, though 
the charity of friends may still conceal the lie. 

The way to health lies through obedience to law, and the 
discernment of laws determining health lies in man's recog- 
nition of the fact that he is a complex being, a conscious 
spark of divinity embodied in matter, and that no part of 
his nature can be neglected or ignored without making the 
whole man sick. Mental, moral and spiritual diseases by far 



206 A Study of Man. 

outnumber those of the physical body, for in these are in- 
cluded every sin and every crime, and so long as man ig- 
nores these, and their relations to the physical, so long will 
perfect health be an ideal of some other clime, instead of 
the universal possession of humanity on earth. 

Man is no more all mind than he is all body. The talk 
now-a-days about "mortal mind," and man as being nothing 
but God is meaningless. No man living, known to us today, 
is all mind, all body, or all God, nor will man become all 
God through pure imagination, more than by gazing at the 
tip of his nose till he becomes cross-eyed. The perfection 
of man lies in his working with and through his conditions 
and environment toward ideal perfection, and that which 
more than all else hinders his march to "the serener heights 
where dwells repose," is this ignorance of his own nature, 
and innate selfishness in relation to his fellowmen. Let him 
work to remove these and the light of a new day will rise 
in him, and the dawn of a new era will begin for all hu- 
manity. 

"I trust I have not wasted breath; 
I think we are not wholly brain, 
Magnetic mockeries. 

"To shape and use. Arise and fly 

The reeling Faun, the sensual feast; 
Move upward, Avorking out the beast, 
And let the ape and tiger die." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



SANITY AND INSANITY. 



Health of body and health of mind are inseparably con- 
nected. A diseased mind in a healthy body, or a healthy 
mind in a diseased body, are alike incompatible. Health 
has reference to perfect harmony and complete development, 
and is therefore an ideal condition rather than a present 
reality. Progress along the line of normal development 
leads continually to broader vision and to a completer life. 
The goal of man is perfection; arriving at this goal, man 
will find himself in perfect harmony with nature and at one 
with divinity. Sickness and disease are therefore due to in- 
complete and imperfect development. The life of the ani- 
mal is circumscribed by its own appetites, and limited by the 
necessities of its environment. The animal ego in man nar- 
rows his vision and limits his endeavors to the circle of self. 
Having transcended the animal plane the nature of man as- 
pires to the next higher; and whenever he ignores or denies 
this aspiration, which is his human birthright, his whole na- 
ture tends to revert to the animal plane. Whole races have 
thus reverted to barbarism, and besotted individuals, even in 
communities of advanced civilization, are often thus bestial- 
ized. This condition often results when reason is first de- 
throned, and where the human qualities gradually fade out 
and give place to the animal instincts and appetites. Such 
human beings not only manifest the instincts of animals, 
but they are even more dangerous to society, for the linger- 
ing light of reason converted to cunning intelligence may 
with the semblance of beneficence clothe treachery in the 

(207) 



208 A Study of Man. 

garb of purity. When the object of the demon's treachery 
is accomplished or defeated, nothing can so chill the blood 
and terrify the soul as the shriek of his baffled rage or the 
howl of his fiendish triumph. The growl of the tiger or 
the roar of the lion are tame in comparison to the human 
voice thus degraded. 

The numbers of the incurably insane in all civilized coun- 
tries are counted by tens of thousands, and these cases are 
largely on the increase. Like the diseases of the physical 
body, mental alienation manifests every conceivable degree, 
and every variety of form, from the morbid and melancholy 
to the raving maniac. In recent cases, and in the milder 
forms of the disease, treatment is sometimes followed by 
satisfactory results ; still, in spite of all advancement in the 
art of medicine, the number of incurable maniacs steadily 
increases. The number of the insane thus steadily encroaches 
upon the number of sane in every community, and this ratio 
of increase is likely to become still greater unless preventive 
measures are introduced, or remedial agents are instituted 
against this fearful tendency to insanity. 

The intellectual advancement of the human race has 
been very marked even within the past few decades, so that 
within the memory of those now living the whole theater of 
the activity of man has changed. Culture in its highest 
sense cannot be confined to intellectual advancement; nor 
/can real progress for man be expressed in the race for 
wealth, extravagance, and selfish indulgence. None of these 
things necessarily elevate man beyond the sphere where 
the animal ego reigns supreme. Man may be a highly intel- 
lectual or a highly sensuous animal, but he is animal still, 
so long as self rules, and so long as selfish greed, no matter 
how expressed, inspires his efforts and shapes his ends. In 
his exultation over the intellectual progress and material 
prosperity of the age man has forgotten his birthright and 
his immortal destiny. In "free and enlightened America" 
the struggle for life has been transferred from the physical 



Sanity and Insanity. 209 

to the mental realm. When the country was new and 
sparsely settled the percentage of those who were engaged 
in manual labor or physical pursuits was large, and literary 
pursuits and mental strain were the exception. The ruling 
passion in America today is to avoid manual labor, to secure 
wealth without toil, to indulge sensuous appetites, and in 
every way to promote selfish interests and aims. Mental 
strain has thus increased manifold, and bodily disease has 
given place to mental alienation and to the wreck of reason. 
The conservative and moderating influences of the old re- 
ligions have been largely withdrawn, and in their place, to 
add to the mental strain and general confusion, have come 
that psychological babel, modern spiritualism, and that soul- 
destroying mildew, materialism. These innovations serve 
only to materialize all spiritual conceptions or tend to de- 
stroy all hope of better things, or kill out every noble aspira- 
tion of the soul. To add still further to the mental strain 
that the human mind must endure, so-called Christian sci- 
ence, rich in assertion and poor in lasting results, seems bent 
on crowding the mind, all unprepared as it is, into the sub- 
jective realm, the very highway to insanity. If any are dis- 
posed to regard this as a doleful picture let them refer to 
the statistics of insanity for the past decade, and if they will 
then but carefully consider the above bare outlines they will 
be forced to the conclusion that the half is not told. 

The perfect development of an individual and the com- 
plete harmony that constitutes the ideal life, and which is 
the only complete health of the human being, may seem to 
many an impossible attainment, and thus give rise to dis- 
couragement. Every well-meaning and earnestly striving 
individual has only to remember that this ideal of health is 
none other than the ideal of religion, and that the effort to 
reach this ideal perfection is the effort to become Chrislike. 
That this goal may be reached in the present life by but 
very few is no reason for relinquishing all efforts toward 
its attainment, for no such struggle can ever be in vain, and 



210 A Study of Man. 

if life continues here or elsewhere, under any conditions, it 
■must bear with it the accumulated results of every earnest 
endeavor. 

The best that can be said of any imperfect individual 
is that his face is set in the right direction, and that he is 
striving toward perfection. He whose cycle of life is bounded 
by self, and whose interests are all personal, no matter in 
what form or on what plane these interests may be ex- 
pressed, is still tethered to the animal plane; he has not yet 
entered his inheritance nor claimed his birthright. The 
structure and laws of action of the human brain, and the 
laws of the human mind, all show that narrow views and 
selfish aims tend to unbalance and degrade the whole human 
being. The nature of man is complex in both structure and 
function, and a wide range of activities is therefore neces- 
sary to maintain its integrity. Nothing so dwarfs man as 
selfishness ; nothing so broadens and elevates man as sym- 
pathy. If one engages in specific manual labor for any great 
length of time, the bodily mechanism conforms to the nar- 
row range of activities and becomes deformed. If one fol- 
lows a specific line of thought to the exclusion of all other 
mental exercise, the thoughts revolve in a circle that is con- 
tinually narrowing, and the channels of which are con- 
stantly deepening till the entire process becomes automatic. 
Other organs atrophy for lack .of use, and the entire struc- 
ture ithus becomes unbalanced. Many persons are thus pos- 
sessed; only a few possess real knowledge. This condition 
of possession differs from monomania only in degree, and it 
is often thus only a question of time as to when real insanity 
will declare itself. There are four things that men most de- 
sire, namely, love, wealth, fame, and power. Greed for these 
narrows all individual life to the horizon of self, and the rav- 
ings of the insane might be classed as due to disappointment 
or even to success in one of these realms. Outside of the 
thousands of the actually insane there are other thousands 
who are thus drifting toward the same goal, or who are lay- 



Sanity and Insanity. 211 

ing the foundations deep and strong for insanity in the com- 
ing generations of men and women. If one will but study 
the encroachments of greed for gold through all its phases 
down to the condition where in the midst of plenty the miser 
dies from utter want; if one will observe how slowly but 
surely every noble impulse gives place to the consuming 
passion, and how generosity shrivels as in a consuming fire, 
he cannot fail to be convinced that selfishness at last, in 
every form, overreaches self, and leads inevitably to defeat 
and ruin. Selfishness is indeed the father of every vice, and 
\ice destroys its votaries like a very moloch. 

The time has now fully come when our mental habits 
and intellectual states are of paramount importance. If the 
combined skill of the medical fraternity of the world is un- 
able in any large degree to remove the results of mental vice 
and to restore the insane to intellectual health, it is time to 
inquire into the real cause of insanity, and to endeavor to 
find a method for its prevention. We continually measure 
what we call success in life by false standards. We are in 
urgent need of a sealer of weights and measures in the in- 
tellectual and spiritual .realm, to protect our own highest in- 
terests from the worst of frauds perpetrated by ourselves. 
This standard is indeed not wanting, but it has been so mis- 
interpreted and so misapplied that it has become of no avail. 
This standard is revealed in the Sermon on the Mount, and 
it may be summed up in one word, altruism. Rites and cere- 
monies, creeds and genuflections, the devices of man, have 
set at naught this divine measure of human conduct and hu- 
man motive; these have indeed reversed the divine decree, 
and put the commandments of man in place of the command- 
ments of God, and we are now paying the penalty for diso- 
bedience. Protests against this view of the cause of all our 
ills will come alike from the bigoted churchman, from the 
selfish ritualist, and from the scoffing materialist. The father 
of lies has not only usurped the throne of the Son of Man, 
but he has intrenched himself in the very house of the Lord, 



212 A Study of Man. 

and he has taken the very bread of the children and cast it 
to the dogs. Zeal for proselytes and religious propaganda 
are often but organized egotism, selfishness and conceit, mas- 
querading in the holy name of religion. No wonder that 
crime, disease and insanity run riot and threaten to decimate 
the human race. In the name of the sacred altars of relig- 
ion corporations of selfish men gather tithes and amass mil- 
lions, while the poor go unhoused and the little children cry 
lor bread. To complete the sacrilege and emphasize the 
awful sarcasm in the name of Him with seamless garment 
and with no place to lay his weary head, this corporate self- 
ishness expresses surprise and sorrow, and appoints seasons 
of fasting and prayer over the fact that the great hungry, 
surging masses of humanity turn away from the churches 
and scout with scorn the very name of religion ! This may 
possibly, by misinterpretation in certain quarters, be called 
a tirade against religion and the churches ; very well, my 
brother, call it what you will, but first inquire of your soul 
whether it is not true, and account to your conscience for 
the stewardship assumed in the name of the Christ. Nothing 
less than the truth will lift humanity out of the pit into which 
it has fallen, and restore man to health and sanity, and the 
truth must not only be (old, but it must be lived by everyone 
who assumes the name of teacher, and who thus becomes 
his brother's keeper. If the sacerdotalism of the world would 
follow the example of a Tolstoi, and distribute its hoarded 
treasure among the poor, then would suffering and want be 
for a time at least unknown, and the sad face of humanity 
would reflect the divine radiance of Him who preached the 
gospel of benevolence to the poor. These hoarded millions 
lie between the great orphan, Humanity, and the cross of 
Christ. If there is selfishness in high places, what wonder 
that the ignorant masses worship the golden calf? Insanity 
and imbecility are fast devouring the royal blood of the old 
world so that the ravings of the maniac and the gibberish 



Sanity and Insanity. 213 

of idiocy are heard from palace to hovel, and insanity goes 
hand in hand with plague and pestilence. 

The sanity of the human race is impossible in the face 
of physical degeneracy. Whatever anchors man to the ani- 
mal plane tends to degenerate and bestialize. The one ani- 
mal attribute that can thus degrade man is animal egotism 
or selfishness. The prevention of insanity therefore depends 
largely on the diffusion and exercise of the principle of un- 
selfishness. The spiritual redemption of the human race is 
impossible in the face of disease of body and mind. The 
physical, intellectual and spiritual elements in the life of 
man are inseparable. There was never an individual who 
was spiritually pure and perfect, and who at the same time 
was mentally unsound and physically diseased, and there 
never will be such an individual. We send missionaries to 
the heathen while crime walks red-handed through our 
streets; we build hospitals for the sick and sanitariums for 
the insane, and mania and other mental diseases multiply in 
the land. Large masses of intelligent men and women vote 
religion a fraud, and life a failure, and declare that they do 
not know or do not care what comes after this life. 

It is high time that every well-wisher of the human race 
should turn his attention to the nature of man and his mis- 
sion on earth. The cause oif our ills is not far to seek. All 
efforts to pry into the conditions of another state of exist- 
ence have practically proved failures, and we may as well 
go to work in earnest to see what can be made out of the 
present life and its varied opportunities. Mental and nerv- 
ous diseases will recede and insanity will lessen just in pro- 
portion to the broadening of our vision and the extension of 
our beneficence. Our idols must be dethroned and we must 
move to higher planes of life, and by breaking down the 
walls of selfishness we shall discover more exalted ideals, 
develop finer senses, enter on a new line of experiences, and 
begin to realize the life that is divine. Sanity will there be 
the handmaid of health, and disease and insanity will return 



214 A Study of Man. 

to the swine to be choked by the receding wave of animal- 
ism which will then no longer degrade the human race or 
dethrone human reason. The children of men will be 
clothed and fed; they will be healthy and sane; and as the 
agent of divine Providence a regenerated humanity will then 
embody the Christ. We must pray with hands full of bur- 
dens, with hearts full of sympathy, and with feet bent on 
missions of charity. The leper and the insane will then be 
known at sight as he who is walled in by self, and whose 
little soul is unable to scale the walls which he has built by 
his own greed, and who is unable to draw the bolts and bars 
which he has forged in darkness while avoiding the light of 
charity and love. Health will then echo the harmony of na- 
ture, and sanity will reflect the Divine Intelligence. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION OF MAN. 

In a work of this character where it is undertaken to 
handle familiar facts in an unfamiliar manner, where rela- 
tions are traced that are often overlooked, and where co- 
ordinate results are pointed out not generally supposed to 
exist, a considerable number of repetitions are unavoidable. 
More especially is this the case in the present instance, 
where a single modulus is discerned as underlying the whole 
of nature, and therefore including man. It is necessary in 
the present case to refer frequently to this modulus, and to 
point out its varied forms of application. Thus the same 
principle will be stated in various forms which are reducible 
to the same result, for only in this way can the universality 
of the modulus be made apparent. The principles of involu- 
tion and evolution have been frequently applied in the way 
of illustration, as also to illustrate special groups of facts. 
If these two principles are the inseparable poles of one law, 
and if that law is basic and universal, it might seem neces- 
sary to take a somewhat broader view of the law itself than 
is to be derived from any special application. 

No intelligent student of nature at the present time, at all 
familiar with the large groups of facts in physics and biology 
constituting the theater in which evolution is thought to play 
so large a part, will be found ignoring or entirely denying 
the evolutionary theory. No intelligent biologist familiar 
with the ordinary facts of human physiology will for a mo- 
ment deny that the outer unfolding of the body of man from 
germ to prime is an evolution, according to any fair inter- 

(215) 



216 A Study of Man. 

pretation of facts and an intelligent comprehension of the 
principle under consideration. Evolution as a fact is every- 
where admitted; the ground of disagreement is in the appli- 
cation and interpretation of the law. In other words, the 
difficulty is not in regard to facts or laws, not in science or 
philosophy per sc, but in the minds of men who variously 
consider and diversely interpret nature; and were it not for 
the fact that evolution has been supposed to explain the ori- 
gin of man from lower forms of life, and so apparently to 
antagonize divine revelation, it is doubtful if anyone would 
tli ink of questioning the law any more than that of gravi- 
tation. 

The most pronounced opponents of the application of 
evolution to the origin of man seem to have misapprehended 
this application as suggested by the leading advocates of the 
theory of evolution. This misapprehension has been so often 
and even so recently pointed out by leading scientists, and 
moreover made so plain to every unbiased mind that it would 
here be out of place to go into details. It may be here noted, 
however, that opposition has been shown to the various at- 
tempts that have been made to show the evolution of relig- 
ious belief, from the fact that with most persons individual 
belief is inseparable from original revelation, and this they 
regard as directly of divine origin. The idea that a divine 
revelation may unfold under natural law seems here to have 
been overlooked. 

So far as we are now concerned with evolution, its ap- 
plication and interpretation only are involved. Evolution 
being everywhere admitted as a fact, it is applied to two 
separate groups of phenomena. In the growth and develop- 
ment of individual forms of life it is generally admitted with 
but slight qualification. In the progressive unfolding of spe- 
cies, and in the progressive advancement of man through 
lower organisms, it is frequently denied — not always denied 
as a factor, but as being sufficient to account for all results. 
The question then presents itself in this wise: Does that 



Involution and Evolution of Man. 217 

law or process which everywhere unfolds or elaborates indi- 
vidual organisms, flawing outward, and expanding from cen- 
ter to surface, also push the whole complex series of earth's 
organisms upward from lower to higher forms? To this in- 
quiry one party answers unhesitatingly in the negative, the 
other answers in the affirmative with certain concomitants 
and qualifications. 

Here again it would be out of place to go over the ground 
involved in the discussion, as many volumes have already 
been written on the subject by leading advocates of either 
side with the result of bringing the factions no nearer to- 
gether than before, as each party in turn claims the victory 
over the other. 

Looking now at the processes of nature and of life as a 
whole, no one on either side will deny evolution in toto, and 
no one will deny that it has greatly aided in the interpreta- 
tion of natural processes. Looking again rat the processes 
of nature and of life as a whole, there is another law dis- 
cernible, operating equally and consistently with that of evo- 
lution, and capable, when equally well apprehended, of recon- 
ciling all the above-named discrepancies and disagreements. 
If evolution is indeed true, and is more or less a factor in 
all processes, as is generally admitted, any other law or proc- 
ess discovered, or hereafter to be discovered, must be capable 
of reconciliation with evolution, and must be shown to work 
in harmony with it, when the range and application of both 
laws are understood. This concept and basis of agreement 
is perfectly consistent with the sequence of all scientific dis- 
covery. 

Because evolution has been the first to receive recogni- 
tion, it by no means follows that it has forever pre-empted 
all the ground, particularly as it is not generally claimed for 
it that it explains all processes in nature. No one claims 
this much for evolution, therefore every sincere seeker for 
the real truth ought to welcome any suggestion from what- 
soever quarter that promises a reconciliation of beliefs, and 



218 A Study of Man. 

a further and more consistent apprehension of nature. All 
processes in nature, whether inorganic or organic, present 
themselves to the mind as an equation to be solved. In all 
physical problems, whether in applied mechanics or in na- 
ture at large, there is the problem of the parallelogram of 
forces, whereby the direction of force or momentum is deter- 
mined, and whence equilibrium results. Without this law 
even the apparent stability of forms in the midst of unceas- 
ing change would be impossible. Thus contentions result in 
compromise, and discordant elements unite to produce har- 
mony. There are the dual conditions of centrifugal and cen- 
tripetal forces, of cohesion and disruption, of attraction and 
repulsion everywhere recognized. There is behind all of 
these the problem of mass or inertia over against all ten- 
dency producing movement of mass, or the inherent relation 
of matter and force. This duality runs through the whole 
phenomenal display of nature as the basic idea of our con- 
cept of atoms, and in the genesis and phenomena of all life. 

Duality and manifestation are synonymous terms; either 
term suggests the other. All problems of life, as all prob- 
lems in nature, present themselves, therefore, under this 
form of duality. No principle is more widely recognized 
than this, as in one form or another it is the basis of the 
higher mathematics which enter the realm of nature's high- 
est display, and calculate not only the application of princi- 
ples to mechanics, but determine the revolutions of suns and 
planets, and the changes of time and seasons. 

The central idea in evolution is the natural sequence and 
cc-ordinate relations of all processes in nature. The evo- 
lution hypothesis alone does not satisfactorily reveal these 
relations and determine this sequence. The unfolding of 
germs in the vegetable and the animal kingdoms is every- 
where recognized as the process whereby individual organ- 
isms arise. Evolution here recognizes the duality above re- 
ferred to, first, under the terms heredity and environment; 
and second, it recognizes the fact that the individual at any 



Involution and Evolution of Man. 219 

stage of development is an adjustment of these two sets of 
factors. The personality of man is, at any moment from 
germ to death, the result of all that lie has inherited and all 
that he has acquired. Here, however, the process by which 
inheritance is derived is not the same process by which sub- 
sequent acquirement is brought about. In fact, these two 
processes are exactly the opposite of the other. That which 
is derived is drawn in; that which is evolved is drawn out. 
These two processes are to and from the center of life in 
germ or man. It is .true that evolution recognizes the ele- 
ment of progress in the presence of the apparent persistence 
of forms* types, and species, and recognizes some element 
that tends to push forward all life to higher planes and 
toward more perfect ideals, and endeavors to account for 
improvement by the principle of natural selection and that of 
the survival of the fittest; and no doubt these principles are 
concerned in determining results. These principles, how- 
ever, on the one hand prove too much, and on the other are 
inadequate to account for the ideal forms toward which na- 
ture everywhere and continually strives. In the case of man 
these principles of variation, without an underlying modu- 
lus, are quite sufficient to have long ago modified him out of 
existence. Natural selection and the principle of the sur- 
vival of the fittest no doubt have a great deal to do in de- 
termining conformity to types, and may modify and improve 
pre-existing forms, but they could never have originated the 
ideals which are thus progressively unfolded. 

In spite of the ebb and flow of life, the wax and wane of 
civilizations, the rise and fall of empires, there is some ele- 
ment that not only preserves the human type, but pushes it 
continually toward a higher ideal, and through all lower 
forms of life there is a prophesying of man ; an overshadow- 
ing of the human form descends to the lowest types of or- 
ganic life, as a still higher ideal overshadows man himself. 
The theory of natural selection and that of the survival of 
the fittest fail entirely to account for this overshadowing 



220 A Study of Man. 

ideal. Even the worm at our feet is thus climbing the mount 
of transfiguration. 

Nature reveals in all her processes one divine ideal, man. 
This ideal descends from man to the lowest form of life, and 
ascends from man to the perfect archetype. It has been 
shown elsewhere in these pages that the lower forms of life 
contain elements of man's nature both in form and function. 
It is as though the individual qualities of man were sepa- 
rately embodied in living forms. As we approach higher 
forms in the lower animals these qualities are grouped to- 
gether. Every quality therefore may be conceived as exist- 
ing separately, and every possible variation below man may 
be conceived as resulting from combination. As the series 
approaches man the likeness becomes more complete. Man 
thus epitomizes the organic life of the earth. The lower 
animals are fragmentary human, beings; the higher animals 
are rudimentary human beings. Unless the sequence of na- 
ture stops with man, man is a rudimentary being of a still 
higher or more perfect form. 

Viewing now all of Nature's handiwork within the range 
of human ken, all physical processes, from the busy play of 
atoms to the revolutions of suns and worlds, all organic 
processes from monera to man, the growth of a single germ, 
the modification of species, the progress of the human race, 
and bearing in mind the duality of all processes and the bi- 
unity of all manifestations, we find the operation of a two- 
fold law corresponding to the universal duality; this twofold 
law is Involution and Evolution. 

In all physical processes moving outward from center 
to surface, in all organic processes, unfolding from germ to 
organism, the process is evolution. This is just one-half the 
process, one member of nature's equation. Every play of 
forces, every display of processes, from center to surface, 
is met and balanced point by point, in atom or sun, in germ 
or organism, in plant, animal, or man, by an opposite impulse 
from surface to center. The overshadowing ideal form thus 



Involution and Evolution of Man. 221 

Teaches and is impressed upon the life-center, and furnishes 
thus the plan and specifications for the building that is 
evolved. Evolution is thus balanced by involution. This is 
the universal process in the solution of the cosmic equation. 

The recognition of this dual law is the reconciliation of 
Science and Religion. If we call evolution materialistic, we 
may with equal propriety call involution spiritualistic, and 
neither term can be construed into a reproach. We know 
no more of the real essence of the one than of the other. 
We recognize the manifestation of matter and spirit as the 
two poles of being, spirit being involved and matter evolved ; 
these two meet and blend in all created forms. The one 
gives power and ideal form, the other, structure. 

From the dawn of life on the earth to the present mo- 
ment, from the beginning of the unfolding of every germ to 
the complete development of the organism one Divine Idea 
overshadows and is progressively involved in every living 
thing. If evolution is seen in any instance as a vis a tergo, 
involution appears as a vis a fronte. In the apparent striv- 
ing of nature all creation tends to the embodiment of the 
Divine Idea through the evolving of the living form, and 
these forms strive continually toward the modulus, man, 
impelled thereto by the in-dwelling, and overshadowing of 
the Divine Idea. 

Nature is not then soulless or Godless. Involution is as 
rational and as thinkable as evolution. What Nature and 
Soul and God are, in their essence, we do not know. All 
that man knows is revealed through man himself. These 
tilings to us are our ideas of them, no more and no less. The 
thing in itself is in every case beyond us, and we know no 
more of the real essence of an atom than of the being of God. 
We can comprehend God only as we involve the divine idea 
and evolve the divine life. The center in us of these two 
groups o>f experiences is where God and Nature meet in self- 
consciousness. The expansion of this center is understand- 
ing; the illumination of this center is conscience; and the 



222 A Study of Man. 

harmonious adjustment of God and Nature in us is at-one- 
ment. The divine likeness is at-one with the Divine. 

The question then for us is not who builds, but how is 
cosmos built? Our idea of the Great Architect is no longer 
extra-cosmic, but intra-cosmic. In place of what Carlyle 
calls an "absentee God, doing nothing since the first Sab- 
bath, but sitting on the outside of creation and seeing it go," 
we have the idea of the immanence of creative energy, crea- 
tive power, and creative design in every blade of grass, no 
less than in animal and in man. Not an infinitesimal atom 
can escape this divine immanence any more than it can 
transcend the bounds of nature. If in our human idea God 
is infinite, then nature is boundless. God is at the center and 
Nature at the surface. These are the essence and the sub- 
stance, the ideal and the real, unity in diversity, diversity in 
unity, and duality in bi-unity. These are Father-God, and 
Mother-Nature. "After His likeness created He him male 
and female. Male and female created He them." Man- 
Woman are then the two poles of the One Being. Man is 
concerned only with the present life and the present time. 
Self-oonsciousness is for man the ever-present now; now is 
his opportunity ; now, the appointed time. Man has no more 
present concern with a world to come than with the worlds 
that are past. Past and future are related to man, the self- 
conscious ego, but they are not the ego itself. To ignore or 
despise our present opportunities, either from motives of 
worldliness or other-worldliness, is equally subversive of the 
highest and best interests of man. For man to ignore his 
present interests on the one hand, or to relegate them to an- 
other state of existence on the other, overshadowed by the 
fear of death and the terrors of superstition, is in either case 
to barter his birthright and to miss the full meaning of life. 
To ignore our highest present interests is to be 'time-serving. 
To relegate these interests to another sphere of being with 
the expectation of greater gain is to be self-serving, and these 
are but different forms of the same animal egotism. The 



Involution and Evolution of Man. 22$ 

religious ideals of the earth's benighted millions are in- 
grained selfishness, and these ideals reflected back in time 
and worked out in the lives of men have resulted in man's 
inhumanity to man, while the formulated motive of glory to 
God has disguised the ulterior object of glory to self. The 
difficulty lies not with true religion but in the selfishness of 
man, and man is as selfish in his religon as in all things else. 

If all lower forms of life prophesy of man, so is man on 
each successive plane of being prophetic of a higher state. 
All natures strive in man, because he has reached the human 
plane into which the light of that which lies just beyond 
pours in a never-failing stream, while the light from the hu- 
man plane illumines all below. Man thus focalizes the plane 
below and the plane above him, and all antagonisms thus re- 
sulting are but manifestations of the impulse already re- 
ferred to, pushing man in common with all nature to higher 
and still higher planes. From the dregs of animal life man 
has derived the principle of animal egotism. From the plane 
next above him, man dimly discerns the divine principle of 
altruism. Man is thus but one-half human, and by the time 
he has become wholly human, or altogether humane, he will 
have become half divine; for so does one nature overlap the 
other, and he advances into the higher nature only as he 
shakes off the lower. Forever a pilgrim, man must drop the 
load of sin before he can pass the golden gates that lead to 
the delectable mountains ; and he drops the load as he jour- 
neys on, while sorely pressed, and not during hours of ease 
and refreshment. When he is conscious that his load has 
vanished, lo ! his enlightenment has already come. Life is 
thus its own elixir, and its office is transfiguration. 

All over the world we hear the word humanity. Benevo- 
lent enterprises are everywhere set on foot, and humani- 
tarian societies are everywhere organized. This humane im- 
pulse, even when misdirected, is still the dawning of the di- 
vine in man, the forgetting of self for others, the advance- 
ment of altruism over egotism. For science and civilization 



224 A Study of Man. 

on the one hand, and for so-called religion on the other, to 
claim all the credit for this dawning of the higher life, is 
to confess embodied and organized egotism, nothing more. 
The impulse bringing about this result is older than all re- 
ligions, deeper than all sciences, broader than all civlizations, 
higher than all heavens. It is the Divine Spirit animating 
and elevating all nature. 

The humane impulse in individuals is the true sign of ad- 
vancement from egotism to altruism, from the animal, 
through the human, toward the divine. This is indeed an 
education in the highest sense, but not in the ordinary sense 
as the term is apprehended. What we call culture may be 
as one-sided and selfish as any other acquirement of man. 
Here as elsewhere man may have an eye only to the main 
chance, to the best opportunity for himself in intellectual 
matters as in money matters. Strife and competition here 
as elsewhere often take unfair advantage and trample down 
the weak as unmercifully as in the halls of trade, or in the 
public mart. Whenever and wherever one must lose in order 
that another may gain, all profit becomes plunder, howso- 
ever protected by law or glossed over by so-called usage and 
respectability. Popular education, mere intellectual ac- 
quirement, often ministers to pride and self-conceit, and 
therefore belongs to selfish egotism. Intellectual pride is no 
more altruistic than purse-pride. To the selfish and time- 
serving, altruism has no other meaning than the giving up 
of the present advantage, with the somewhat uncertain pros- 
pect of a greater advantage to be derived hereafter. The 
idea of rewards and punishments is inseparable from self. 
To forego self-indulgence here in order to secure greater 
self-indulgence and more exclusive privileges hereafter, for 
the poor and despised here to change places with the rich and 
honored there, leaves the sum of human misery the same, 
and no such philosophy has ever advanced mankind one step 
toward divine altruism. Hence it was shown a little way 
back that the devout and the time-serving may be on the 



Involution and Evolution of Man. 225 

same plane. We are not placed in this world merely to give 
it up for a better or a worse one, just as jockeys trade 
horses. Life may be likened to an orchard laden with fruit. 
We enter it hungry and famishing. Suppose that we pass 
from tree to tree and eating none, thinking that the next tree 
will produce more luscious fruit and repay us for waiting, 
till we have passed through the orchard, and the gates close 
behind us, the night comes on and we fall famished in the 
darkness, dying, and bewailing our folly and our wasted op- 
portunities ; surely we would be fools indeed. Suppose we 
again enter the orchard with the thought that any of *he 
fruit is good enough as we see it bending every bough ; sup- 
pose we see all around us children who cannot reach the 
branches where hang the choicest specimens; suppose we 
find there the weak, the sick, the crippled, and the blind who 
have not power to help themselves, and suppose we reach 
out our strong arms in every direction and gather all that 
we see, trampling down even the little children in our greed, 
and reaching the highest branches from the broken bodies 
of the sick and starving, and so gathering all the choicest 
fruit into our own garners, suppose we protect it by law, 
and set watch-dogs at every avenue of approach, and finally 
starve ourselves at -last through fear of decreasing our store ; 
surely again we would be fools indeed. This is the parable 
of the quails and the manna by which a stiff-necked and re- 
bellious people were taught. In these two hypotheses the 
result is the same; selfishness defeats self and ends in fail- 
ure here and everywhere; and selfishness is mot altruism, 
even when transferred to the celestial kingdom. 

"Mine and thine" is an inheritance from animal egotism. 
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof," and there 
is enough in this fair earth for all humanity if the strong 
will only aid the weak. Altruism gathers that it may give, 
and delights more to give than to gather. Man is the al- 
moner of the divine, and he who is permitted to give is far 
more blessed and more bound to give thanks than he who 



226 A Study of Man. 

is compelled to receive charity. He who thus forgetteth 
self remembers God. Not a far off "absentee God," but the 
God immanent in all his works, whose Altar is the human 
soul, and whose Providence is the human hand. 

If religion was the first to announce "Peace on earth and 
good will to man," superstition stood ready to obscure and 
make it of no effect. Wherever religion built her altars, su- 
perstition lit her fires of persecution equally in the holy 
name of Deity, and so the most atrocious cruelties have been 
perpetrated in the name of God. Even today the conditions 
are unchanged. Christendom builds magnificent churches 
to save souls, and magnificent iron-clads to destroy men. If 
the money devoted to these two purposes alone were dis- 
tributed among the poor, hunger and want would disappear 
from the Christian world. If the rich and prosperous were 
really altruistic the poor and oppressed would not be an- 
archistic. The rich and the poor, therefore, are arrayed 
against each other because egotism is forever at war with 
altruism, because the animal is hostile to the divine in man. 

It may thus be seen that in the higher problems that 
concern the well-being of man involution and evolution are 
equal factors, and that through this twofold law the entire 
nature of man is comprehended. Science working upward, 
and religion working downward, come to the same conclu- 
sions, and are therefore reconciled. The sequence of evolu- 
tion and the sequence of involution meet in the conscious 
ego, revealing to man his own nature, and the principles 
upon which his progress toward divinity depends. Divine 
altruism is thus revealed, not as a mere matter of senti- 
mentality, nor as speculative philosophy, but as the one 
principle in all its bearings that elevates man above the 
brute, and that enters the conscious life of man as the di- 
vinity that shapes his ends, inspires his life, and realizes his 
destiny. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE HIGHER SELF. 



The modulus of nature, or the pattern after which she 
everywhere builds and toward which she continually strives, 
is an Ideal or Archetypal Man. 

This universal idea has been frequently referred to in 
the preceding pages as the key to many mysteries. Some- 
thing yet remains to be said in regard to this ideal, for if 
it removes many obscurities in the work of nature, it also 
illumines the pages of revelation, and gives to religion a 
meaning commensurate with life and time; nay, more, it 
reaches beyond the veil that separates the world of matter 
from the world of spirit, and reveals the conditions of con- 
sciousness in a higher plane of being. 

The evidence of the truth of such revelations lies in the 
co-ordinate relations of all human experience to conscious- 
ness. The futility of all discussion regarding the immortal- 
ity of the soul that does not begin with some definite idea as 
to the nature and origin of the soul is everywhere apparent. 
If it be urged that divine revelation has already settled this 
question, it may be answered that, with those who accept ' 
such revelation as divine, and therefore authoritative, there 
comes endless confusion in the application and interpretation 
of revelation to individual belief and personal life. Over 
against the belief in immortality, and in supreme happiness 
awaiting a select few of the human race, is the belief that a 
large proportion of human beings designated as the wicked 
shall be destroyed or shall exist in eternal torment. Most 
religionists thus divide the human race; but most confusing 

(22 7 ) 



228 A Study of Man. 

of all is the estimate of the exact conditions that are to de- 
termine the above classification. The result has often been 
that one class of religionists assign to the dark side of the 
equation all other members of the human race, while the 
first class are considered as doomed by all the others. This 
condition of things is the legitimate outgrowth of the fact 
that modern belief undertakes to hold by ancient creeds, for- 
getting that both belief and creed are the work of man, and 
while they are claimed as derived from the sacred revela- 
tion, they are not a necessary part of it. It may thus be 
seen that the fault does not belong to religion nor to revela- 
tion per se, but that it belongs wholly to man. Until man 
has learned to distinguish between revelation and his own or 
other men's interpretations of revelation, he has not taken 
the first step in the way of understanding any religion, and 
least of all, his own. 

The result of the confusion above noted has been to 
separate nominal Christians into three classes, namely, ma- 
terialists, agnostics, and enthusiasts. The first class deny 
the so-called immortality of the soul. The second class say 
they do not know, and while they are inclined to doubt, 
they are, or intend to be, non-committal. The third class 
refuse to examine or discuss the question, but take it on 
faith, and feel the assurance «within them; and these are by 
far the most happy and the most to be envied. Unfortu- 
nately all persons are not thus enthusiasts, nor can all of 
us silence the voice of reason, nor suppress the interroga- 
tions that continually arise. The enthusiast cuts all knots 
that theologians have devised, brushes aside all contradic- 
tions and mystifications, and at a single bound seizes hold 
of the goodness of God, determined to win heaven by sim- 
ple faith and obedience. The number of nominal Christians 
far outnumbers these real Christians, who are consistent so 
far as enthusiasm can be consistent in anything. 

In the face of all these conditions there has arisen of late 
years an unusual interest in all psychological studies, and 



The Higher Self. 229- 

few nominal Christians can deny that at one time or an- 
other they have consulted one having a familiar spirit, in 
the hope of getting a few grains of real knowledge with 
which to fortify their waning faith. What man or woman 
is there above the intelligence of the poor imbecile who does 
not desire a completely satisfactory answer to the question ? 
If a man die, shall he live again, and how, and where? 
Many no doubt still take this matter on faith, but few are 
thus satisfied. Few, indeed, who have strong ties of affec- 
tion, and who find the pathway of life broken by open graves,, 
are thus easily reconciled. 

The present writer would divert the discussion from the 
question of the immortality of the soul to that of the exist- 
ence and nature of the soul that is to be lost or saved, that 
is to continue beyond the grave, or to cease at the death of 
the body. If the lines of study herein suggested shall re- 
move a great deal of obscurity, and so lead up to the other 
question with clearer apprehension of the nature of the 
problem, something will be gained. The terms soul and- 
spirit have been so long used indiscriminately, and have 
been used to express the most diverse and fantastic ideas of 
innumerable persons, that it would be found exceedingly 
difficult now to attach any definite meaning to them. This 
is rendered still more difficult from the fact that very many 
persons now-a-days deny the existence of either a soul or 
a spirit in man, regarding all of man's powers as an affec- 
tion of matter due to organization. But no one will deny 
the fact of his own consciousness. No one can fail to recog- 
nize certain conditions of consciousness in relation to 
thought, feeling, emotion, desire, and will. No one will 
claim to have exhausted the whole range of human experi- 
ence, or to have completely comprehended any subject. 
Everyone can see that while the avenues of sense are many, 
consciousness is the one center toward which all sensations 
proceed. If consciousness be thus seen to be the central 
fact of man's being, and that through which all planes and 



230 A Study of Man. 

conditions of life are related, then if man has a soul, or a 
spirit, consciousness must be the central fact of the soul, 
as of the bodily life of man. If the physical body is thus 
viewed as the vehicle of consciousness on the objective 
plane, the soul may be considered as the vehicle of conscious- 
ness on the subjective or spiritual plane. If man's experi- 
ence here and now can be shown to be derived from both the 
natural and the spiritual planes, then the soul is within the 
body, and consciousness within the soul. If consciousness 
is within the soul, and the soul is within the body, then the 
body is the theater in which to study both soul and conscious- 
ness. If man's experience is his sole method of knowing and 
becoming, and if his experience now is derived from both 
the natural and the spiritual worlds, and if consciousness in 
man is thus open or may become open to the spiritual or 
subjective world, then the present life and the human body 
present the opportunity for study of man's life and experi- 
ence in the spiritual world. If all experience of the natural 
world reaches consciousness through the bodily avenues of 
sense, and if the body and its avenues were destroyed or re- 
moved, leaving the soul, so to speak, naked, then any expe- 
rience reaching consciousness thereafter would pass through 
the soul only, and so reach consciousness independent of 
physical avenues of sense. It has been shown herein that 
the body of man is conscious as a whole, and that of this 
diffused consciousness, self-consciousness is the center. At 
death both consciousness and self-consciousness leave the 
body. The soul then, the organ of self-consciousness, in pass- 
ing to the subjective plane changes the basis of experience, 
and receives impressions direct, instead of through channels 
of sense. If consciousness now, while in the body, receives 
impressions from the subjective plane independent of the 
avenues of sense, there is nothing to hinder it from continu- 
ing to receive such impressions, and in larger measure after 
the body is thrown off. Consciousness may be seen to be re- 



The Higher Self. 231 

lated to time and sense, and yet not dependent upon these 
ior its existence. 

It may thus be seen that a knowledge of the planes and 
conditions of consciousness in man, here and now, is the 
only way by which man can really know anything of a fu- 
ture life, and that this knowledge of the planes and condi- 
tions of consciousness can only be gained by experience. In 
this way only can the gap between the present and any fu- 
ture life be bridged. We must experience the divine life in 
order to know that it exists, just as we must experience the 
natural life in order to know that it exists, and in either 
case the range of our experience is the measure of our 
knowledge. 

Man's real knowledge is thus limited by his experience, 
and as this in any or all directions is necessarily limited, 
man knows nothing as it is, but only as revealed through his 
own partial experience ; that is to say, he has his own partial 
and limited ideas of things. Man has thus an idea of God, 
of nature, and of himself. Man has only the least idea of 
that with which he is most familiar, namely, himself. If 
man could but know himself he would speedily change his 
idea oi both God and nature. The reason why man knows 
so little of himself is because his vision is circumscribed by 
the narrow bounds of his own selfishness. He is thus an- 
chored blindly to that animal egotism whence he came, and 
discerns not that divine altruism toward which he tends: 
Man thus narrows the range of his experience, and precludes 
the possibility of knowledge, and he will make nature's ideals 
conform to his own narrow ideas. 

It is thus that man has an idea of God, and this idea takes 
on two forms, or is derived from two groups of experiences. 
Man views external nature, the phenomenal world of matter, 
force, motion and .shapes existing in space and time. He 
sees the mighty sun and all the heavenly orbs rolling in 
space, the green earth putting forth blossom and fruit, and 
again cold and barren in winter. He sees the huge leviathan 



232 A Study of Man. 

sporting in ocean deeps, and again the organism whose thea- 
ter of life is a drop of water, and through all these he dis- 
covers system and order. The seasons come and go; nature 
blossoms and decays. Reflecting in all of these, the rolling 
thunder, the flashing lightning, the movements of life, the 
order through all, and the power over all — an unseen power 
behind a visible nature — man derives thence an idea of God, 
and this idea thus derived is pure pantheism. 

Man derives his idea of God through another source. 
Looking inward into his own soul and taking cognizance of 
his own mysterious nature filled with hopes and fears, with 
joy and sorrow, aspiring, despairing, ferocious in hate, yet 
gentle in love, he thus realizes his own personality. Man 
thus finds power without and power within, mystery without 
and mystery within, and he thus adds to his pantheistic idea 
derived from external nature the anthropomorphic idea de- 
rived from himself, and he calls this idea a Personal God. 
Now let us suppose that this idea of personality were de- 
rived from a perfect man, then the ideal man would be the 
Personality of God. We should then have a nature-God 
and a man-God derived from the conception of a perfect 
personality. This idea would be strengthened and elevated, 
if one who had attained this human perfection were known 
to us, or clearly represented to us. Such an one would be 
henceforth our ideal man, God revealed to us through hu- 
man perfection. If now the manner of life of such an one 
were revealed to us, and the means by which he had 
achieved perfection, then the possibility of our attaining to 
such perfection would be beyond all things inspiring. No 
personal God can be revealed to us except through man. 

Nature to us seems wrathful and all-devouring, and the 
natural man outdoes even nature in cruelty and destruction. 
The Divine man is full of all sweet charities, tender, merci- 
ful, loving and approachable. He calls himself brother; he 
enters the lowest estate that the poor and despised # may 
claim fellowship with him, and sickness, sorrow and sin dis- 



The Higher Self. 233 

-appear at his approach. If these attributes reveal the per- 
sonality of God, as a divine altruism, a tender sympathy for 
all human woe, and a strong helpfulness for all human weak- 
ness, then this ideal reflected back on man's idea reveals the 
higher-self in man, and it reveals the means by which the 
higher-self may be realized. 

We are here dealing with man's idea of God. Here pro- 
fane history is to be entirely ignored as having no bearing 
on the externals of either the Christ or scripture. Neither 
has any discussion of the conception or birth of the man 
Jesus anything to do with the matter. The immaculate con- 
ception of a human being is something that cannot be un- 
derstood and need not be discussed. The mystery of Christ 
must be sought in another direction if it is ever to be un- 
veiled to the human understanding. The mystery of Christ 
to man is the mystery of the perfect to the imperfect. It 
is the mystery of the realized Divine Ideal to the imperfect 
human idea. 

Christ is called ''the only begotten Son of the Father." 
Let us suppose that from the bosom of nature in the fullness 
of time there was to emerge a perfect, ideal man, that the 
Infinite Power behind all phenomena had from the begin- 
ning this archetypal man in view, and that the purpose of 
all life was to realize this ideal, not once for all, but every- 
where as the ultimate of all forms. The ideal man, Christ, 
was thus with God from the foundation of the world. Christ 
being thus the Divine Idea realized, man is a divine idea un- 
realized, or in process of being realized. The only begotten 
of the Father are thus perfect men, and the perfect man is 
embodied altruism. This method of viewing Christ os may 
seem to the reader heterodox; but if he will bear in mind 
that the only way by which mankind has been able to recon- 
cile the God-idea and the Christ-idea is by the interposition 
of an incomprehensible mystery, he may find that the mys- 
tery here interposed between these two ideas is not beyond 
comprehension, namely, the mystery of the perfect ideal man 



234 d. Study of Man. 

to the imperfect man. Without changing the facts this view- 
brings God, and Christ, and man nearer together. The in- 
considerate will moreover object that this idea makes Christ 
out to be only a man. But it cannot be said that a perfect 
man is only a man. We have already shown that one plane 
of life overshadows another, and that the perfect man in- 
volves the divine and thus realizes the divine ideal. It is 
thus the God in man that perfects him. 

Let us briefly consider what view this idea suggests of 
the nature and mission of man as we find him in the world 
today. The perfect man, so far as he is related to time and 
phenomenal existence, is of slow growth. He is a man of 
sorrows, and acquainted with grief; he is to be tried and 
tempted at all points, so that knowing all evil he may con- 
sciously and deliberately prefer all good; he is through ex- 
perience thus to become a conscious center of goodness, 
wisdom and power. Thus accomplishing the divine will and 
becoming the divine ideal, man arrives at perfection. In 
another section it has been shown that by the time man be- 
comes altogether human, or humane, through altruism, he 
has become half-divine, having eliminated the animal ego- 
tism. The further unfolding of the divinely human man, by 
which he arrives at perfection, concerns the unfolding of 
consciousness on the subjective or spiritual plane of being, 
and the assumption of those powers that Christ predicated 
for them that believe. 

The perfect man is a co-worker with God. His mem- 
bers no longer war with each other, and he is thus at-one 
with God. The attainment of perfection is thus the recon- 
ciliation of the human to the divine. If this ideal perfection 
has been even once realized, and if the experiences of life 
be regarded as a journey toward it, the brotherhood of Christ 
to man has a real meaning. But if Christ is God in some 
other, far-away and unapproachable sense, then Christ can 
be little to us. 

The scriptures reveal an ideal man as one who had at- 



The Higher Self. 235 

tained to all perfection, in whom dwelt all the fullness of 
the God-head embodied. The man- Jesus was crucified; the 
God-Christ was glorified, and so it is everywhere, and at all 
times; the crucifixion of the human is the enthronement of 
the divine. 

The whole aim and meaning of human life thus becomes 
a continual striving after ideal manhood and ideal woman- 
hood. Just as all lower life climbs toward humanity, so 
humanity climbs toward divinity. In the scriptures Christ 
is the embodiment of altruism, as Satan is the embodiment 
of egoism. Each is an ideal, the one placed over against the 
other that man may not err in his choice of methods or of 
ends. Christ is lifted up and draws all mankind unto Him 
through the sympathy and love of his divine benevolence. 
Satan is cast down, and drags man after him through their 
participation in his supreme selfishness. These are ideals 
of the lower and the higher self in man ; and these two strive 
in man for the possession of his will, his consciousness, and 
his life. The selfish ego belongs, as we have elsewhere 
shown, to the receding wave of animal life. Man leaves 
this behind him as he journeys toward perfection. The con- 
scious individuality belongs to the advancing wave involved 
from the divine life, and this unfolds and is illumined as man 
journeys toward perfection. Nothing can be plainer than 
this as the real meaning of human life. It is a great mis- 
take to suppose that birth is the beginning and death the end 
of man. An endless future necessarily implies a measure- 
less past. What we call time is a span between two eterni- 
ties, the whence and the whither; and when time drops out, 
eternity only remains. It would be as correct to say that we 
die into this world and are born out of it, as to say that we 
are born into it and die out of it. Our mistake of the mean- 
ing of life includes a mistaken idea regarding both birth and 
death, and we have previously shown the evidence of this 
mistake in the fact that we have allowed fear and forebod- 
ing of evil to gather around the exit, which is painless and 



i$6 A Study of Man. 

beneficent as a baby's sleep, and have come with rejoicings 
to welcome the entrance, which is often an inferno to both 
mother and child. It is thus that man's ignorant and super- 
stitious ideas have reversed the beneficent will of nature, 
and reduced divine ideals to grotesque and horrible carica- 
tures. No wonder that the despairing soul cries: 

"Alone! alone! 
Forth out of the darkness, 
Back into the darkness 

We come and we go alone." 

Whence then comes the light to the despairing soul alone 
in darkness? It comes from within as a revelation of that 
divinity which lies at the very foundation of the self-con- 
scious life of man. Divine-consciousness in man is illumi- 
nation. This is the mystery of self-consciousness, and it 
can be no more comprehended in terms of sense and matter 
than the senseless rook can comprehend the sympathies of 
man. Naught but a spark of the divine would be capable of 
unfolding even to man's present estate, so that by experi- 
ence he could epitomize all lower life ; and naught but the 
divinity in man could lead him even through hope and de- 
sire to still grander possibilities of being. 

The fact of a double consciousness in man is demon- 
strated by somnambulism. Mati continually leads a double 
life. The subjective plane of experience is as patent and 
demonstrable as the objective, and the fact that man fails to 
distinguish between these two planes of consciousness, and 
is unable as a rule to assign his varied experiences to the 
proper plane, proves nothing to the contrary. This will be 
still more apparent when we consider that, as consciousness 
is the one center into which flow both lines of experience, 
and that all experiences of one plane are necessarily mixed 
with those of the other, it therefore requires a wider range 
of experience on both planes, and a high degree of conscious- 
ness to preserve the difference and trace the analogies. 



The Higher Self. 237 

There are thousands of individuals today who are con- 
scious of experience more or less clear on the subjective 
plane of being. Many of these can enter this condition at 
will. In other cases it may be readily induced by artificial 
means, such as magnetism, and the use of drugs. Most of 
these artificial method's of inducing subjective consciousness 
are attended with great danger to the subject, and with very 
grave responsibility to the operator, who in depriving an in- 
dividual of his self-control and impressing upon such per- 
sons his own personality, whether good or bad, must in some 
measure at least become responsible for the future acts of 
his subject. 

In that profound psychological study, Bulwer's Strange 
Story, when Margrave came under the influence of the 
magic wand, now in the hands O'f his victim, he was not 
only helpless, but he was compelled to tell the truth. This 
is a universal fact in magnetism. The magnetic subject may 
be a villain in his objective state, but as soon as his objec- 
tive life becomes obscured and the motives of egotism are 
laid at rest, he comes under the dominion of his higher self, 
and confession of crime and self-condemnation are often the 
result The voice of conscience is no longer silenced by 
the senses and by self-interest, for consciousness on the sub- 
jective plane discerns only the real interest. The individual 
while conscious on the subjective plane may acknowledge 
and deplore the evils of his daily life, and yet predict that 
he will return to and continue in them, for he recognizes the 
conditions that have woven these chains of sense and self 
about him, and he knows that his will is unequal to the task 
of overcoming them. He must work out the evil Karma 
that he has engendered. 

It is such facts as .these that reveal the existence of the 
higher self and its relations to the two planes of conscious- 
ness. If now the life of the individual on the lower physical 
plane be inspired by the principle of altruism which leads 
him into all good and to do good, the nature of the individual 



238 A Study of Man. 

is no longer at war with itself. The lower and the higher 
self are thus at-one, and the consciousness of man draws ex- 
perience from the two worlds. Intuition, which is the direct 
apprehension of truth, unconditioned by sense and time, and 
which is the organ of the higher self, now supplements in- 
tellection, which is the organ of the lower self, through the 
function of the human brain. This union of man's higher 
and lower nature is called the true illumination, and it has 
been often achieved in all ages — not by the rich, the power- 
ful, and the great, as men estimate greatness, but by the 
lowly, and the humane, by the despised, the poor, and the 
crucified, by those who having become dead to the world ex- 
cept as partakers in its misery, were alive to God; their Ado- 
nai had come. 

If the reader shall say, this is all very beautiful, but it 
is transcendental ; it may do for a romance, or a strange 
story, I ask him then what he can make out of the mystery 
of life or the fear of death ? I ask him to reconcile nihilism, 
agnosticism and spiritualism, and give the true meaning of 
magnetism, hypnotism, clair-audience, clairvoyance, and the 
consulting of familiar spirits, a meaning and a use that is 
not transcendental. Is man then hopelessly bewildered and 
irretrievably lost? 

I hold that true religion and true science come to the 
same conclusions. I hold that man's most bounden duty and 
his highest hopes demand that he shall know himself — not 
the selfish-self alone, that recedes and finally disappears as 
he journeys toward perfection, but also that higher-self that 
expands, illumines and inspires the ideal life. I hold that 
this higher self, this divine ideal is the modulus of nature, 
and therefore the true meaning of life. The Christ-idea 
did not originate eighteen hundred years ago. Christos was 
in the bosom of the Father from the beginning. Man has 
forgotten the civilizations that are past, but mother earth 
remembers all her children. These buried civilizations have 
tramped like mighty armies all round and round the globe. 



The Higher Self. 239 

Every hillside is a necropolis, and every vaney is filled with 
dry bones. The dust of ages covers the remains and crum- 
bles the monuments of man. Submerged continents bear 
down to ocean beds the cities of dim ages past. Where was 
the Divine Father during all these eons of time ? Think you 
my brother He was sitting on the outside of creation, and 
only waking a few years ago to the nature and necessities 
of man ? Alas ! our ingrained selfishness is not satisfied with 
degrading man, it must also belittle God. Is Nature's modu- 
lus revealed today in every breathing thing, a lucky thought 
oi the All-Father for the benefit of his peculiar people but 
yesterday, while in the earth's more ancient prime things 
came and went by chance? Is our salvation less today be- 
cause those of old were also in the hollow of His hand? 
Divine altruism cried: "Come unto me all ye who labor and 
are heavy laden," and the buried ages heard, and it echoes 
to the ages yet to be. All nature climbs toward God as suns 
and worlds unfold. 

"Yet I doubt not through the ages, 
One increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened 
With the process of the suns." 

With shaded eyes and bended head man dimly discerns 
the mystery of life. In every clime God's altars rise; in 
every land and every age man feels the touch of wings, and 
dimly sees as through a veil his overshadowing Lord. What 
matters it the name be bears? Who knows the one true 
name? The highest name in every time has been man's 
highest ideal, and this has not been derived from selfish beast, 
but -dimly seen as an overshadowing presence to which man 
gave his highest .thought, his choicest gift. This ideal does 
not change, though it seems to recede as man advances, and 
apprehends more of the divine beneficence. To the highest 
soul it is most revealed, as distant landscapes blossom forth 
on nearer view from mountain heights. Man has foolishly 



240 A Study of Man. 

imagined that he could hedge divinity about and appropriate 
it all to himself, and thus our God has been invoiced with 
our other possessions. 'Tis then we know the least of God, 
when we make of him a chattel. 

Symbolize truth as we may, the greater mystery is the 
journey of life, and the great revealer is man's higher self, 
the overshadowing presence that draws him up toward di- 
viner things. He who listens to the voice within his own 
soul will learn his* own nature; it will be revealed from 
within. Self-consciousness illuminated will become divine 
consciousness, and the more the divine is thus revealed the 
more will man find himself powerless to define it. It will 
still be his highest ideal, and every higher plane revealed 
will show still higher planes beyond. The rude savage who 
worships a fetich never doubts his power to name or even 
to make and to mar his god. The illuminated soul with in- 
troverted vision is silent, for he finds neither name nor 
quality befitting the All-Good, man's idea of God. The 
higher self, when fully revealed and set free from the bond- 
age of sense, will be at-one with that Elder Brother, the 
Christ, a living presence in every illumined soul, a co-worker 
with the divine for the uplifting of humanity. 
******** 

In these pages no system of philosophy has been at- 
tempted, but a systematic use of the knowledge of common 
things has been suggested. Nature everywhere reveals sys- 
tem and order, but no system of philosophy promulgated by 
man has ever compassed the order of nature, or embodied 
the whole truth. The so-called originators of the world's 
philosophies, and their enthusiastic followers, have often 
imagined that they have arrived at finalities, when in fact 
they have but dimly discerned at best a few great principles. 
In the application of a principle to the processes of nature 
man always works from incomplete, and, therefore, insuffi- 
cient data. The conditions of a complete system of philos- 
ophy, such as should stand through all time, would demand a 



The Higher Self. 241 

complete knowledge of nature and of man. On the other 
hand, the inductive philosophy alone is insufficient. If, how- 
ever, while pursuing the inductive method of research, as 
heretofore shown, proceeding from fact to law, we make 
tentative deductions, holding them strictly as such, and view- 
ing them often in the light of experience, we shall thus hit 
upon a method of study and observation of incalculable 
value. We may not, indeed, arrive at final truths, but we 
may feel the assurance that we are on the way that leads to 
them. If man will but apply the principles everywhere re- 
vealed as the foundation of human nature, to the unfolding 
of his higher life, he may accomplish in the journey of the 
soul what modern science has done in the march of me- 
chanics. 

The dawn of a new era in the life of man is heralded by 
many signs. The apathy that arose from discouragement 
has given place to the humane impulses that have arisen 
from even a dim discernment of the needs and the possibili- 
ties of the hour. The leaven of benevolence is at work, and 
sweet charity and tender piety go forth as on wings of an- 
gels to relieve distress and comfort the despairing. Woman- 
hood, the new messenger of divinity, is thus trying her long- 
pinioned wings and uplifting the human race through the 
immeasurable forces of gentleness and love. The soul of 
womanhood will no longer be chained to a crucifix and 
hedged about by the creeds of men. She will arise in the 
beauty of holiness like a true daughter of Zion, and open 
the Gates of Peace that all who will may come in. Look at 
her deeds of charity and her missions of mercy, and read in 
them the signs of the times. She has not even yet fully en- 
tered her kingdom, but she already has lifted humanity 
nearer to divinity than have the iron creeds of man for ages. 
The power is hers, but she must banish the last vestige of 
scorn for those of her own sex who have unfortunately be- 
come the victims of man's betrayal ; she must realize that 
sin and crime are but the resultants of diseases that are born 



242 A Study of Man. 

of ignorance and innocence, and brought about by the self- 
ishness of both man and woman; and she must also appre- 
ciate the fact that none need the ministry of love and kind- 
ness more than these sin-sick souls. Woman must be true 
to her womanhood before she can inspire man to virtue. In 
no age has the degradation of woman been contemporaneous 
with the true elevation of man. The fortunate, the up- 
right, the untempted — these are not the needy. Only they 
who are sick are in need of a Physician such as Christ ever 
was, such as woman is designed to be. Let it be understood 
that every helpless, ignorant, orphaned daughter is the pro- 
tege of every pure and noble woman in the land, let her ruin 
be regarded as a universal disgrace to her sex, and let jus- 
tice be meted out to her betrayer, and there would be thrown 
around the possible victims of man's innate selfishness a wall 
of protection that no man would dare to scale or break down. 
The adoption of such a code of moral ethics would elevate 
man and woman alike; woman would be saved from man, 
and man saved from himself. 

Selfishness is the father of vice; 
Altruism, the mother of virtue. 

There was a time in the history of man when he might 
have been regarded as a healthy being. With the progress of 
so-called civilization, and of the intellectual development of 
the race, nervous maladies have largely increased. The 
battlefield of disease has moved higher with the unfolding 
of man's higher perceptions, and both mental and moral dis- 
eases are now more often seen than mere physical maladies. 
Mankind begins dimly to discern this fact, though its meth- 
ods and medicines may be likened to those of the middle ages 
in the treatment of physical ailments. The Way to Health 
now lies through co-ordinate harmony of man's entire na- 
ture. He is a laggard in learning and a blind student of hu- 
man nature who believes that any system of drugging or 
any method of mental exaltation now known is sufficient for 



The Higher Self. 243 

the promotion and preservation of health. Health must flow 
down into man's physical life from the harmony of his in- 
tellectual and spiritual nature. Health must flow up into 
man's spiritual life from the harmony of his natural and 
physical existence. 

It is said that, when the first rays of the rising sun 
beamed on the statue of Memnon, it emitted in the midst of 
its brazen splendor the confluence of harmonious sounds. 
Even so the physical life of man awaits through the long, 
dark ages of superstition the rising glory of a brighter sun 
v/hose rays shall illumine his entire nature, till it responds 
without discord to the symphonies of creation. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE OUTPOSTS OF SCIENCE. 

The diversity of intellectual pursuits and the multiplicity 
of scientific investigations and discoveries at the present 
time are indeed bewildering. 

It is practically impossible for any one mind to compass 
or contain it all, or even to fairly epitomize it. There are, 
however, certain outposts in the general trend of thought, 
and critical experiment along scientific lines, that may be 
clearly discerned, and, at least, approximately formulated. 
These outposts not only clearly indicate the trend of the 
times and the lines of progress, but at the same time they 
serve to indicate the quality of thought and the measure of 
intellectual evolution at the present time. 

We are on the eve of some of the greatest discoveries 
known to man. Great as is the activity already referred to, 
it is quite equalled by a feeling of uncertainty as to many 
things hitherto held with great confidence; and over all 
there is an air of expectancy. No one knows, and no wise 
man would undertake to say, what might or might not hap- 
pen in the next year, or the next decade. 

The inductive method of Aristotle, since the time of 
Sir Francis Bacon, has given the impulse to modern sci- 
ence, and is largely responsible for the activity and the re- 
sults already referred to. 

In the foregoing pages of the Study of Man crass 
materialism, under the garb of science, has been often re- 
ferred to. This materialism was a tentative, and perhaps a 

(244) 



The Outposts of Science. 245, 

necessary result, of the method of investigation pursued, 
and of the subjects under special consideration. 

Concerning Cosmology, and the evolution of the human 
race as a whole, little was generally known previous to the 
writings of Charles Darwin. The account in Genesis was 
neither altogether admitted nor denied; though often and di- 
versely "explained," it was nowhere understood. Then came 
Darwinism, and "the struggle for existence in the midst of 
a hostile environment." The perpetuation of the species 
was the great burden of Nature and became the slogan of 
the evolutionist. 

The individual was apparently for the time being ig- 
nored. There was indeed a forecast, that the race — some fu- 
ture race of human beings — would arrive at perfection, but 
as such fruition was likely to occur some millions of years 
hence, our solicitude for posterity gave little present com- 
fort and less hope to the individual. In the meantime Na- 
ture was represented as quite regardless of the individual, 
and as continually sacrificing them in myriads to preserve 
the species. If the scientist of these earlier days were asked 
about the destiny of the individual, or the probable exist- 
ence of the human soul, it was his "busy day," and he was 
likely to reply that science had nothing to do with such a 
subject! 

In the meantime other scientists were steadily pushing 
their investigations in the realm of physics and chemistry 
into the constitution of matter, and the whole realm of dy- 
namics, kinetics, and the like. 

Spectrum analysis had afforded many interesting facts 
and broad philosophical conclusions. The wave theory of 
light and all previous concepts of the constitution of the 
atom were found erroneous by actual experiment, or en- 
tirely inadequate to explain facts and phenomeny often de- 
monstrated. 

Interest focalized in the Ether. Postulated as a neces- 
sity to account for the phenomena of light, it was now real- 



246 A Study of Man. 

ized that in it was to be sought the origin of both the sub- 
stance and the energy designated as matter and force on 
the physical plane. 

Lord Kelvin is said to have proved by a series of careful 
experiments that all matter in the universe is, at bottom, 
ether. 

This ether is indistinguishable from space. It is not 
ether in space, but ether as space. 

The vortex-ring theory of Helmhaltz gained credence 
rapidly, and thus a new theory of the atom came to the front. 

"If a ring could be produced in material not subject to 
friction none of the motion could be dissipated, and we 
should have a permanent structure possessing several prop- 
erties, such as definite dimension, volume, elasticity, attrac- 
tion, and so on, all due to the shape and the motion involved. 
Imagine, then, that vortex rings were in some way formed 
in the ether, constituted of ether. If the ether be, as is 
generally believed, frictionless, then such a thing would 
persist indefinitely."* 

If the grossest forms of matter are resolvable into ether, 
and the primordial atom consists of a mere whirl in this fric- 
tionless, imponderable, and continuous ether, exit material- 
ism ! and enter spiritism ! 

"Matter is a mode of motion of spirit," says Calthrope. 

Now let us for a moment return to the evolutionists, 
and the followers at Darwin. Professor Huxley had been 
the prince of agnostics, and by inference he had often been 
classed with materialists. The "Unknowable" was an intel- 
lectual dust-bin for troublesome or impertinent questions. 

Note. — It is interesting to read in this connection the theory 
of Descartes regarding vortices, and that of Leibinz regarding 
monads and atoms. The emphasis laid upon the principle of 
pre-established harmony, and its manifestation through mathe- 
matical laws on the one hand, and its foundation in universal 
intelligence on the other, were insisted on by Leibinz. (1646- 
1716.) 



The Outposts of Science. 247 

Within a year of his death Huxley said: "I no longer wish 
to speak of anything as unknowable; I confess that I once 
made that mistake even to the waste of a capital U." 

In "Science and Morals" Huxley says: "I understand 
the main tenet of materialism to be that there is nothing in 
the universe but matter and force. . . . This I heartily 
disbelieve. ... In the first place, as I have already 
hinted, it seems to me pretty plain that there is a third thing 
in the universe, to wit, consciousness, which, in the hard- 
ness of my heart or head I cannot see to be matter or force, 
or any conceivable modification of either, however inti- 
mately the manifestations of the phenomena of consciousness 
may be connected with the phenomena known as matter and 
force." 

With matter in its grossest forms originating from and 
resolvable back into the ether, and with force originating in 
vortex motion, Huxley, had he lived long enough, would 
have found less difficulty in co-ordinating matter, force and 
consciousness, and in arriving at that divine and hence in- 
telligent unity from which all diversity has emanated. 

We have boundless space; universal substance; univer- 
sal energy; universal intelligence, and universal conscious- 
ness. Space is thus the "all-container"; and all these are 
One. Boundless : Infinite, omnipresent, etc. Are not these 
the terms everywhere applied to Divinity? In seeking the 
key to Nature, science has stumbled upon the pathway to 
God. 

"The entire process of ascending evolution appears to be 
dependent on the presence of mind; that is, consciousness, 
in the successive stages, from the simple to the complex." — 
Professor Cope. 

"One continuous substance filling all space, which can vi- 
brate as light, which can be sheared into positive and nega- 
tive electricity, which in whirls constitutes matter, and which 
transmits by continuity, and not by impact, every action and 
reaction of which matter is capable — this is the modern 



248 A Study of Man. 

view of the ether and its functions." — Professor Lodge, of 
University College, Liverpool. 

"Thought is a mode of motion which is either entirely 
of the ether, or which affects the ether as well as matter." — 
Prof. Ames, of Johns Hopkins University. 

"I think we are very near to a discovery of a physical 
basis for immortality that will transform most all our 
thinking." — Professor Dolbear. 

"Matter, therefore, is not only divine, but it is the crown- 
ing act of divine love and self-sacrifice. It is God, giving 
away himself for man to use, to enjoy, to govern." 

"God has nothing but his own perfect substance to make 
worlds (and all that they contain) out of." — Calthrope.* 

Thus the substance of the universe is the garment of 
God. A new and far more literal meaning attaches to the 
saying, "in Him we live, and move, and have our being" ; 
and "He is in all, through all, and over all." 

Now the essential characteristic of man is his persistent, 
conscious self-identity. In the midst of all his diverse ele- 
ments, and his warring passions, he is still One. Herein is 
the "likeness" of God in the face of the diversity of nature, 
in which man is said to have been made. 

Every universal principle or potency that man has con- 
ceived or apprehended in nature is epitomized in man. 

If space is "a conditioned fullness" out of which all 
things emanate and into which they all return, and from 
which they can never be for an instant separated, even in 
thought, then is this source of substance and energy, and 
this fountain of life, an eternal fountain, not only the 
source of all, but eternally pervading all. 

Hence derived, and partaking of its attributes, is the con- 
sciousness of man, the noumenon, the potency, of all the 
phenomena of life. 

*The foregoing brief quotations are from a very initere>sting lit- 
tle volume by C. J. Stockwell— "New Modes of Thought." 



The Outposts of Science. 249 

For the first time in the history of modern thought, here 
is a basis for a concept of the human soul in perfect conso- 
nance with our concepts of Nature and Divinity, and what 
Professor Huxley designated as the aim of science, viz., to 
deduce the rational order that pervades the universe. Na- 
ture is no longer at cross-purposes with God, nor is man by 
nature at war with either God or Nature. 

The theory of the "Struggle to preserve the species in 
the midst of a hostile environment" is found to be false, be- 
cause wholly inadequate and self-contradictory. Science has 
swung clear around the circle and come back to God. 

In this crude and imperfect outline of the outposts of 
science enough has been said perhaps to indicate the signs 
of the times and the line of progress. 

In the foregoing Study of Man, written now nearly fif- 
teen years ago, the general theorem will be found to lead 
logically to just these later concepts of science. The two- 
fold process of evolution and involution ; the twofold life of 
man as inhering in the natural and the spiritual, and the 
chapter on Polarity, and the underlying Magnetism, are all 
consistent with these later concepts, and designed to lead up 
to them. These views, and the whole general concept, were 
derived from the Secret Doctrine of the Ancient Masters of 
Wisdom, unfolded to modern students by H. P. Blavatsky, 
to whose writings and instructions I owe more than any 
words of mine can ever express. The search for the soul 
is neither more nor less than a problem in the study of the 
conditions and changes in individual consciousness. This 
problem is unfolded and elaborated in the "Secret Doctrine" 
-of H. P. Blavatsky. Whenever modern students are done 
with contempt prior to investigation, they will find the Se- 
cret Doctrine not only in full accord with the outposts and 
latest concepts of science, but they will find the whole prob- 
lem of individual and race evolution, the nature of the soul, 
and the way of illumination at least fully outlined. Then 
will this wholly misunderstood and therefore misinterpreted 



250 A Study of Man. 

messenger of those who know be measured by her mission, 
and judged by her work. As to what that verdict will be 
the present writer has no shadow of doubt, for it is already 
indicated in the signs of the times, in the recognition of the 
wisdom of the ancients, and guaranteed by that principle of 
justice innate in the soul of man. 

In the closing chapter on the New Psychology it should 
be borne in mind that, what the problems of physical sci- 
ence are as related to the concept of space, such also are the 
problems of psychology as related to consciousness. 

The noumenon of the phenomenal world, or cosmos ; 
that is, the no thing from which all things emanate, is 
Space, in which God and Nature meet as One. 

The noumenon in the intelligent life and varied experi- 
ence of man is consciousness. This is the source of that 
involution, that eternal and inexhaustible fountain of Life, 
Intelligence and Love so often referred to in the foregoing 
Study of Man. Therefore, we shall comprehend both man 
and Nature just so far as we apprehend God. Here lies 
that "pre-established harmony" conceived by Leibinz, and 
that "rational order" referred to by Huxley. Here not only 
Science and Philosophy, but also Theology, meet as One* 

Note; To call the views herein expressed "pantheism," neither 
defines them nor disposes of them, as many simple souls seem 
to imagine. In the first place, which pantheism, for scarcely less 
than a dozen different varieties might be named, each depending 
on the proportion in which the idea of God and the idea of 
Nature enter into the concept. The reluctance experienced by 
many good people in extending their idea of God from the per- 
sonal (anthropomorphic) to the universal is well known. Yet 
all we know about "person" is essentially a limitation, and may 
even be a delusion. Personam — literally, a mask. The outward 
"person," "body," "mask" — conceals the real individual. Now, 
how, in this personal sense, can we apprehend God? Humanity, 
as a whole, personifies God: and as every star in space may con- 
tain other humanities, this is about as near the idea of an 
infinite personality as the mind can go. God personifies itself 
in the aggregate humanity. The whole humanity masks God. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE NEW PSYCHOLOGY. 



The searchlight of science is rapidly penetrating many 
hitherto obscure fields of investigation, and presenting every- 
where problems to be solved, even though the solution may 
be deferred. That the investigator is cautious and non- 
committal often shows that he is altogether sincere, so long 
as he really reserves judgment and does not prejudge either 
way. 

Psychology is really the latest field to be thus explored. 
First, because religious belief or blind faith had already pre- 
empted the domain; and second, because of the exceeding 
complexity of the subject and the difficulties in the way of 
formulated results. 

The "higher criticism" in the realm o>f religion has helped 
to pave the way by clearing up many historical problems, 
and by dissipating many dogmas in anthropology and cosmo- 
genesis religion has thus been driven back to its legitimate 
domain in the spiritual life of man. The real problem of the 
soul is thus faced by both science and religion, in a distinct 
form, as never before perhaps in the life of the race. 

It is true, here as elsewhere, that a problem clearly 
stated and well defined is already in the way of solution. 

The question clearly stated is this : Is there any way, 
any method of research by which man may derive certain 
knowledge as to the existence, powers, and destiny of his 
own soul? 

In previous chapters it has been shown that all real 
knowledge comes by individual experience, and can come in 

0*0 



252 A Study of Man. 

no other way. Religious knowledge is derived through re- 
ligious experience. It is not superstition generated by the 
emotions of hope or fear, nor yet intellectual belief born of 
tradition or dogma, but an actual spiritual experience, 
wherein there is a breaking through of barriers that separate 
the higher elements of man's nature from the Universal 
Spirit and the Divine Intelligence that is above and beyond 
him. This is abundantly illustrated and demonstrated for 
all time by Prof. William James' "Varieties of Religious Ex- 
perience." 

So also with Scientific Knowledge of Psychology. To be 
real knowledge for anyone it must be derived from psycho- 
logical experience. Outside of this, science may formulate 
theories or expound a philosophy of the soul, and may derive 
these from the actual experience of certain individuals, and 
we may even grant that the theories are true and the philos- 
ophy correct, yet for all this they are not real knowledge 
except for him who actually had the psychological experi- 
ence, and forever must remain theoretical or conceptual for 
all others. 

Psychological knowledge, for me, must be the result of 
the experience of my own conscious intelligent life, and can- 
not be determined by what I think or believe regarding such 
experience in the life of others. 

Now the New Psychology may be said, in a very broad 
way, to refer to and to be the result of a large group of 
psychological experiences among a large number of indi- 
viduals. As a body of knowledge, if any such term can by 
courtesy be applied to it at all, it is vague, empirical, and 
often contradictory. Dealing, as it undoubtedly does, with 
actual experiences, the motive that incites it is generally 
selfish or time-serving, and hence the result is seldom a clear 
perception of truth or a discernment of the underlying law. 
The average scientist ridicules these experiences, designates 
them as superstitions, or attempts to explain them away, or 
to deny them altogether. Prof. William James is a notable 



The New Psychology. 253 

•exception at this point. The individual who is convinced 
that he has gotten rid of a troublesome or painful disease, 
or whose life has become serene and happy through a psy- 
'Chological experience, is not disturbed in the slightest de- 
gree by this 'hostile or contemptuous attitude of modern sci- 
ence, and he is perfectly right in his position. However he 
may misinterpret the phenomena, or misspell his philosophy, 
liis experience remains valid for him for all time. The fact 
is bound by no man's theory, and if fact and theory disagree, 
so much the worse for the theory, not for the fact. 

It may thus be seen that the New Psychology is alto- 
gether in the formative stage, and that the scientist and the 
empirical masses are still wide of the real philosophy. Of 
the two classes, however, the empiric who has had actual 
•experience is far nearer the truth. 

The way of research that may lead to certain knowledge 
of the soul is, therefore, solely along the lines of actual ex- 
perience of the individual. 

What then is "experience?" It is self-realization — the 
recognition of that which actually occurs to the conscious 
self-identity of man. The character of the experience must 
depend upon the faculties or elements in man's nature that 
are involved. We experience pain and pleasure, joy and 
.sorrow, and thus learn to recognize and to know the condi- 
tions upon which they depend, and so to avoid the one and 
to secure the other. This is knowledge derived from expe- 
rience. 

The ordinary experiences of man are largely related to 
the world of things ; they occur in space and time through 
the avenues of sense in the physical body. But there is an- 
other realm in the conscious life of man where the senses 
are in abeyance; where the outer world of things is for- 
gotten and for the time non-existent, and where space and 
time are lost in the realization of the immensity and the 
blessedness of Being. Prof. James declares such an expe- 
rience to be as valid and as incontrovertible as are ordi- 



254 ^ Study of Man. 

nary experiences in time, sense and matter to ordinary indi- 
viduals. In certain instances they have been the result oi 
striving through blind aspiration or religious zeal and de- 
votion, with no apprehension of the psychical process or law 
involved. Indeed, such instances as are generally known 
more often have occurred in that way. A moment's reflec- 
tion, however, will convince any intelligent student of psy- 
chology that there must be both a psychological process and 
a psychological law underlying all such experiences. 

The first thing observable in all such eases is the subor- 
dination of the physical senses and the relinquishment to 
God of the personal will. Self-renunciation is the first step. 
Thus has it been with the Mystics, the Saints, the religious 
enthusiasts of all ages. 

Prof. James designates these experiences as related to 
the sub-conscious self. They are rather supra-conscious. 
They transcend the ordinary experiences of the conscious- 
self, instead of falling below them. 

Without this group of experiences no Soriptures would 
ever have been written; no such thing as Inspiration, been 
known ; no religion ever have existed. Here lie the valid 
spiritual experiences of man — that union with God, that 
death to the world realized by the Saints and Mystics of all 
ages. 

It may be observed in passing that in the annals of spir- 
itualism and hypnotism may be found many valid phenom- 
ena definitely related to those just referred to, but generally 
fragmentary and incomplete. As psychical phenomena these 
« are valid, but as experiences to the individual they are not 
only valueless, but positively pernicious and demoralizing. 
In every instance mediumship and hypnotism dominate the 
will of the subject; both are obseessions, just so far or in 
whatsoever degree they exist. They therefore promote de- 
generacy and not evolution. 

The dominance of the will by any hypnotist who is either 
wholly ignorant or utterly regardless of the after-effects 



The New Psychology. 255 

upon his subject, and the surrender of the will to any pass- 
ing ''spirit," made ignorantly and voluntarily by the medium, 
differ radically from that surrender to God of the mystic, in 
which there is a conscious abnegation of the whole lower 
nature, and an aspiration for spiritual light, leading, and 
knowledge of God. No passing elemental, no earth-bound 
spirit, no disembodied saint can for a moment satisfy the as- 
piration of the true mystic. Nothing but the Highest can 
satisfy his aspiring soul. Even here, if the passions are 
strong, and the lusts of the flesh unsubdued, obscession has 
often been the result. The science of the soul, while cogni- 
zant of all these facts and processes, avoids all these pitfalls. 
Self-possession through self-conquest is the first step. The 
student thus avoids that weakening of the will seen in the 
medium and the hypnotic subject, and equally avoids that 
ecstatic emotion or frenzy of -religious zeal seen in the 
fanatic. All of these empirical processes serve to cloud the 
intelligence and obscure the vision of .the soul. The result 
i-s often a relapse from ecstatic vision into licentiousness, to 
be fallowed by remorse and despair, and even suicide. It 
all depends in these cases on the previous life of the ec- 
static and the extent to which self-conquest has been car- 
ried. 

The foregoing suggestions may serve as illustrations, 
and at the same time show how a knowledge qf the soul in 
its higher offices and spiritual planes ought not to be sought. 
Spiritualrsts, Christian Scientists, and many other modern 
cults talk and write very glibly of "Philosophy." In fehe 
earlier chapters of the "Study of Man" philosophy has been 
shown to be "the discernment of the rational order that per- 
vades the universe." Huxley placed this as the ultimate aim 
of science, and it is equally the beginning of all true philos- 
ophy. It is an intelligent conception of the Synthetic Whole. 
Such bare assertions as "All is God," or "All is Mind," con- 
tain not a single element of real philosophy. They are even 
devoid of common sense. They ignore the facts of common 



256 A Study oi Man. 

experience, confuse the mind, and obscure the perception of 
truth, regardless of the fact that empirical effects, even in 
the direction desired, viz., the promotion of health, may and 
often do result. 

A valid experience ought to promote the evolution of the 
individual and give understanding to the intelligence of man. 
Thus the whole realm of man's conscious life will be illu- 
mined; thus the facts of experience will lead to a science of 
life, and to a philosophy of the soul. Such juggling with 
concepts as those to which I have referred lead precisely in 
the opposite direction, and to designate them as "philosophy" 
is simply absurd. Against the facts or experiences involved 
I have nothing to urge, but confusion and nescience can only 
result. 

It may thus be seen in what a chaotic state the New Psy- 
chology is involved. Prof. Henry James' Gifford Lectures 
offer the most hopeful outlook at the present time, the most 
fertile and promising oasis in this desert of the human un- 
derstanding, this Simoon of psychical phenomena. 

In the ancient mysteries of Initiation the candidate was 
first "worthy and well qualified," and then "duly and truly 
prepared." Anyone having any adequate conception of what 
genuine Initiation or Illumination really means must see 
from the very nature of the case that these rules of the 
Greater Mysteries are derived from a deep knowledge of the 
nature of man, of the laws that underlie the human soul, 
and the conditions o.f its higher evolution. They are like all 
other laws of Nature or Divinity, the same yesterday, today, 
and forever. 

The intelligence of man may clearly discern that these 
laws exist, and at the same time be equally sure that his 
knowledge, though by no means complete, nevertheless dis- 
cerns and conforms to the synthetic whole. That is to say, 
it is synthetic and in rational order as far as it goes. There 
may be gaps in his experience, but each new experience 
will fall naturally and spontaneously into its proper place in 



The New Psychology. 257 

that order predetermined by the universal synthesis or 
rational order of the universe. It is thus that man may de- 
rive a knowledge of nature, a knowledge of God, and a 
knowledge of his own soul. This knowledge, thus derived, 
is synonymous with the higher evolution of man. This is 
the true psychology — a knowledge of the soul derived from 
actual experience through the spiritual faculties and powers 
of man. 

In the "Secret Doctrine" of H. P. Blavatsky the philos- 
ophy upon which both cosmic and human evolution proceed 
is clearly defined and briefly epitomized. Each principle and 
plane of consciousness in man is there related to its corre- 
sponding principle and plane in cosmos. A rational order 
is thus revealed in that synthetic whole of which man is a 
part. From first to last the present "Study of Man" aims to 
be rather suggestive than dogmatic, and to lead logically to 
the real synthesis, rather than systematically formulating it. 

The problem may be here suggested, however. The quest 
for the higher knowledge consists in the recognition by the 
individual of the basic principles in his own conscious life, 
and in the dominance, guidance, selection and use of the 
powers of his own being toward a predetermined result. 

To intelligently discern his own powers and possibilities, 
to discover the line of least resistance and the method of 
highest use, and to make these conform to the attainment of 
his highest ideal is the aim. In the language of modern evo- 
lution this is: to develop within the individual the knowl- 
edge and the capacity (derived from experience) to conform 
to, or to control any and every change in, or condition of, 
his environment, and so immediately to adjust the personal 
to the universal, either by acquiescence or dominance of the 
new condition. 

This means, in the strictest sense, and in the highest de- 
gree, knowledge and power; i. e., Evolution. 

The first step in this process is Introspection, or self- 
analysis. Thus may the individual come to know himself — 



258 A Study of Man. 

what he has been, what he is, and what he really desires to 
become. 

If now he has conceived a high ideal, not as to success 
in life, or the applause of men, but as to what he would in- 
trinsically become as a rational intelligence or a living soul, 
he may practically wipe off the slate up to date. Henceforth 
Desire and Will in him may be supreme, and lead him in- 
evitably to the goal of his ideal. He may indeed have to 
struggle against old habits, but these he may dominate in a 
day if he wills. 

Gradually he will gain self-control and surrender of lower 
aims, lower appetites and passions ; this, if he has strongly 
desired and clearly conceived his ideal. He will find the 
realm of his own consciousness to be his own kingdom, and 
that he can transform it into heaven or hell, as he wills. At 
every step the conquest of the lower will mean induction into 
the higher realm of conscious experience. He will find that 
he can exclude the lower and mount to the higher, and that 
the one process includes the other; each supplements and 
assists the other. 

Consciousness to man is the all-container, and Will 
is his primary endowment. Will and desire are the two 
poles of the motor power in him. Aspiration, discrimina- 
tion, and the Ideal are the very essence of his intelligence — 
a "ray" from that Divine Intelligence which is the source of 
his being and the fountain of his life. 

Having by degrees become master of the realm of his 
own consciousness, he will find this realm, this kingdom of 
the soul, expanding. His higher, spiritual powers, under the 
law of all nature, and all life will become synchronous with 
the Universal Intelligence, and faculties hitherto latent in 
him will begin to open and function on their own spiritual 
plane. The law here is the same as on the lower physical 
plane, for it is the same on all planes. It is the principle of 
synchronous vibration and universal harmony. It is exact, 
mathematical, absolute. It is the recognition of this law, 



The New Psychology. 259 

and its application, that progressively promotes evolution, 
and from apprehension leads, at last, to its comprehension. 
The result is knowledge and power derived through experi- 
ence. 

As the consciousness of man thus compasses the world 
of thought and the world of things, and is alike rooted by 
the law of his being in the spiritual and the natural, the 
process above suggested may be seen to be a normal evolu- 
tion. If there are no lapses in the will and aspiration of the 
aspirant he will presently find a new world opening to him. 
Serene, steadfast, master of self, he will realize that there 
is no bar to his progress other than he himself imposes, and 
no limit to the knowledge and power within his grasp. He 
will learn to know the spiritual world precisely as he has 
known and may continue to know the natural. 

It may thus, perhaps, be discerned that the New Psychol- 
ogy is barely the suggestion of the True Psychology; that 
the constructive period in its unfoldment and realizaton has 
not yet dawned on the average understanding of man. 

If the foregoing brief and imperfect outline shall make 
it seem rational, apprehensible, possible, it is all that the 
present work contemplates. Beyond that it has ever been, 
and must still be a matter of individual effort and individ- 
ual experience. Nothing can be truer, or more philosophical, 
than the saying that each must work out his own salvation. 

It requires but a glance to show that the highest types of 
the human race, those who have combined spiritual knowl- 
edge with spiritual power, and crowned both with divine 
compassion and beneficence to man, have developed along 
just these lines. These may have followed an inner intuition, 
and been indifferent to, or even incapable of formulating the 
underlying law, or the clear philosophy upon which the whole 
process proceeds, just as a natural musician may discern and 
execute the divine harmonies, though ignorant of the laws 
of consonance or harmony; or, as one like Colburn may 



260 A Study of Man. 

perform the most astonishing feats with numbers before he 
has learned the rules of mathematics. 

The present writer is acquainted with two individuals, 
one of whom spontaneously, like the natural musician, and 
one by design, effort, and instruction, has attained to open 
vision and spiritual illumination. In either case, the bounds 
of the body, of sense (physical), of time, and ordinary con- 
sciousness are entirely transcended, with the spiritual world 
looming up like a newly discovered continent or a New 
World. 

As object lessons these are of great interest, for they jus- 
tify to the last detail that philosophy of the higher evolu- 
tion oi man which is both natural and obtainable, and which 
is suggested and outlined in the foregoing pages. 

It would be strange indeed if there were no such royal 
highway of the soul open to man. If Divine Intelligence 
had "made man after its image," implanted in the soul the 
longing for light and certain knowledge, and yet left its 
attainment forever impossible, that were Tantalus indeed, 
and the handiwork of eternal hatred, rather than of Infi- 
nite Love and Divine Intelligence. 

May we not hope that the New Psychology is the prom- 
ise and the dawn of the True Psychology ? 



DEC 26 1903 



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